Estudio factorial exploratorio de la empatía en estudiantes de odontología

Objective: The objective of the present investigation is to explore whether the Empathy Scale for Health Professionals (Version-S) applied to dental students complies with the underlying three-dimensional model. Methodology: Dentistry students belonging to the Faculty of Dentistry of the Andrés Bello University, Santiago campus. Population: Consisting of 1017 (N) regularly enrolled students. Sample: The sample consisted of 795 (n) students and represented 78.17 % of the studied population. The Jefferson Empathy Scale for Health Professionals in the Student Version was applied. The internal reliability of the data was estimated using Cronbach’s α and an exploratory factor analysis was applied. The level of significance was α < 0.05 Results: The observed data determined that the reliability was adequate (α = 0.753). The three-dimensional model was fulfilled. It was observed that items P3, P6 and P18 had the lowest mean values. Conclusion: This study represents the fulfillment of the empathy model, with its two components and its three latent dimensions. The students obtained satisfactory results in the Compassionate Care and Perspective Taking dimensions, but unsatisfactory in the “Walk-ing in the patient’s shoes” dimension.