Empathy in First Year Medical Students: Relationship with Burnout

Mossel, R. van (Roland) (2016) Empathy in First Year Medical Students: Relationship with Burnout. thesis, Medicine.

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Abstract

Background. Physician empathy is recognized as an important element of patient care and should as such be cherished in medical students. Being empathic however is a known risk factor for burnout. This relation is complex and in literature contradicting evidence is seen. Empathy as a multidimensional construct comprises both affective and cognitive aspects, such as emotion sharing and perspective-taking. Most research focusses on either cognitive or affective aspects of empathy. Social neuroscience uses a model in which cognitive aspects are integrated with affective aspects and this could lead to a more complete view on before mentioned relation between burnout and empathy. Aims. Aim of this study was to shed light on the association of both affective and cognitive aspects of empathy and their possible interaction, with burnout in medical students in the Netherlands. Methods. We conducted two validated questionnaires, the Empathy Assessment Index (EAI-22) and part (subscale Exhaustion) of the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey (MBI-SS-16) in a population of first-year medical students (n = 218). Because the EAI-22 was translated into Dutch we assessed the internal consistency of the trans- lated items. Correlations were calculated and multiple regression models were built in order to test hypotheses regarding expected associations between empathy aspects, their interaction and burnout. We stratified into Dutch students versus international students. Results. In our sample we saw one significant correlation between an empathy subscale (emotion regulation) and burnout: Pearson’s r -0.30 in the Dutch group and -0.33 in the international group. Other correlations were low, not significant or even reverse in both groups. In the regression models the association between empathic response subscales of the EAI-22 and burnout was assessed with the regulatory strategies subscales as a moderator, also interaction between these subscales was accounted for in the models. While we saw significant beta coefficients for the subscales emotion response and self- other awareness as a moderator on the before mentioned association in our Dutch group, this was not the case for the international group. Conclusion and discussion. Like we expected emotion regulation is negatively associated with burnout. Other associations between empathy aspects and burnout were diffuse. Problematic in our study was the poor performance of the EAI-22 in our population, internal consistency for a number of subscales was not adequate. This study is one of the first studies that combines both affective and cognitive aspects of empathy while researching their association with burnout.

Item Type:	Thesis (Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Faculty supervisor: and Fleer, dr. J. and Secondary supervisor: and Sanderman, prof. dr. R. and Department of Health Sciences, Section Health Psychology and University of Groningen and University Medical Center Gronin
Faculty:	Medical Sciences
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2020 10:39
Last Modified:	25 Jun 2020 10:39
URI:	https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/41

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