Compassionate care component of the construct empathy in medical students in Colombia and Dominican Republic

Introduction: The development of empathy in medical students, which is essential for therapeutic effectiveness and improved patient outcomes, is not well understood. The objective of this study is to determine whether there are differences between levels of the "compassionate care" component of empathy among four medical schools in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Subjets and methods: The sample consisted of medical students. This exploratory and cross-section study measured empathy levels by using the Spanish version of the Jefferson Scale of Physicians. Levels of empathy were studied and compared by a three-factor analysis of variance, Tukey multiple comparison test and discriminant analysis of the matrix components. Results: Differences in levels of empathy of the "compassionate care" component between universities, courses and gender were found. Conclusions: Variability in the values of the levels of the "compassionate care" component of empathy were observed among the factors: university, course and gender. The observed variability between and within the university populations studied cannot be explained, which can be attributed to other unknown factors that influence empathy levels.