Orientación empática en estudiantes de medicina en una universidad de república dominicana

Objective: to determine the level of empathic orientation of the medical students in Universidad Central del Este in the Dominican Republic. Methods: non-experimental, descriptive, cross-section and ex posfacto causeeffect research study. The study population was 853 students from the first, second, third, fourth and fifth years of the career and the final sample consisted of 515 voluntary students (108 from 1^st year, 151 from the 2^nd, 109 from the 3^rd, 94 from the 4^th and 53 from the 5^th. In 2012, the Spanish version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy was applied to medical students after being validated in Mexico and Chile and adapted from the cultural viewpoint by the authors of this paper to the Dominican Republic background. Results: the level of empathic orientation found in the Dominican students was low. There were no significant differences in scores by study year. However, the difference was significant in gender scores. Conclusions: it is required to carry out research studies in order to determine the factors that have an impact on the observed results, the reasons why these indexes were low and the internal and external conditions of the process of medical student formation in Universidad Central del Este in the Dominican Republic.