Development and Cross-National Validation of a French Version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Students

Empathy is a multifaceted personal ability combining emotional and cognitive features modulated by cultural specificities. It is widely recognized as a key clinical competence that should be valued during professional training. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy for medical students (JSE-S) has been developed for this purpose and validated in several languages, but not in French. The aims of this study were to gather validity evidence for a newly developed version of the JSE-S and compare it between two French-speaking contexts. In total, 1,433 undergraduate medical students from the universities of Lyon (UL), France and Geneva (UG), Switzerland participated in the study completing the JSE-S in French. Total and partial scores of the three subscales (“perspective taking,” “compassionate care” and “walking in patient’s shoes”) were calculated for each site. Construct validity of the JSE-S was analyzed considering three sources of evidence: content, internal structure and relations to other variables. A first-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis using structural equation modeling examined the three latent variables of the JSE-S subscales. Cronbach’s α coefficients were 0.75 (UG) and 0.81 (UL). The items’ discrimination power ranged between 0.29 and 1.60 (median effect size of 1.24). The overall correlations between items and total or partial scores derived from the latent JSE-S subscales were consistently similar in both study sites. Findings of this study confirm the latent structure of the JSE-S in French and its cross-national reproducibility. The comparable underlying structure of the questionnaire tested in two distinct French-speaking contexts endorses the generalizability of its measure.

Empathy Levels in Albanian Health Professional Students: An Explorative Analysis Using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy

The study aims were to define the psychometric properties of the Albanian Jefferson Scale of Empathy–Health Professional Students’ version, compare empathy levels among Albanian Health Professional students, and explore any relationship among students’ characteristics and their empathy levels. To achieve these aims, a comparative cross-sectional study was conducted. A preliminary exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the factor structure of the scale, while group comparisons of empathy scores were examined using t-test and ANOVA F-test. A total of 1,240 students were enrolled in the study. Psychometric properties of the scale were confirmed. Midwifery, physiotherapy, and female students showed higher levels of empathy than other groups. Similarly, third-year students showed higher empathy than first- and second-year students. Monitoring empathy levels is fundamental to the adoption of useful educational strategies by faculties to improve empathy skills in Health Professional students and guarantee better care of patients, especially those in need of psychological support.

Changes in empathy of nurses from 2009 to 2018: A cross-temporal meta-analysis

The empathy of nurses is associated with self-care and self-compassion, which may enhance the quality of the nurse-patient relationship. Yet, research on the empathy of nursing staff has mostly used cross-sectional designs, which cannot capture the degree of empathy changes over time. To explore changes in empathy among nurses in China from 2009 to 2018. A cross-temporal meta-analysis was used to examine continuous changes in the empathy of nurses. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were used to conduct this cross-temporal meta-analysis of 57 samples of nurses in China who completed the three subscales (perspective-taking, compassionate care, and walking in the patient’s shoes) of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professionals from 2009 to 2018 (N = 13,825). This meta-analysis was conducted following good scientific practice in every phase, and approval by ethics committees was not required according to the local regulations in China. The findings suggest that the nurses’ mean total scores of empathy and perspective-taking on the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professionals declined significantly over time, but the trend in compassionate care and walking in the patient’s shoes was not significant. No significant changes were found in the overall empathy or the three dimensions of empathy of the nurses in the Eastern region across time, whereas a significant decline was found on the total empathy and perspective-taking scores of the nurses in other regions (i.e. the Central and Western regions). The mean total score of empathy and walking in the patient’s shoes of the nurses who worked in the intensive care units showed a significant decrease over time. Furthermore, these findings indicate that the empathy of Chinese nurses has decreased steadily over the past 10 years. High levels of empathy can effectively reduce healthcare risks, errors, and disputes among nursing staff and enhance patient satisfaction and well-being.

The relationship between empathy and altruistic motivations in nursing studies: A cross-sectional study

Background. According to the biopsychosocial approach and patient-centred models, efficient management of relational competences by healthcare professionals is crucial to affect a patient’s treatment and care process positively. Empathy is one of the major components of the relational skills expected of health professionals. The knowledge of the empathic ability of undergraduate healthcare students represents important information for educators in defining specific and efficient educational programs aimed at supporting or enhancing empathic competences. In this study, we measured the attitude towards the value of health professional empathy in clinical encounters of the first-year undergraduate nursing students. Motivations for a nursing education choice were also evaluated. We expected a significant association between students’ positive attitude towards the value of health professional empathy and the prosocial and altruistic motivations in choosing nursing studies. Methods. A cross-sectional study was performed on 77 first-year nursing students. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Health Professions Student Version was administered. The motivations for choosing nursing studies were detected through an open question.Results. Seven distinct themes, distinguishing between internal and external motivational factors, were identified through the thematic analysis of students’ answers regarding their choice for entering the nursing degree course. On the empathy scale, females gained higher scores than males. When the age was considered, this difference was shown only for younger students, with young females’ total scores being higher than that of young males. High scores of empathy were positively associated with altruistic motivational factors. A negative correlation was found between external motivational factors and the scores of the Compassionate Care subscale of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Conclusions. Knowing the level of nursing students’ empathy and their motivational factors for entering nursing studies is important for educators to implement training paths that enhance students’ relational attitudes and skills and promote positive motivational aspects central for this profession.

Establishing the construct validity and Internal consistency for Urdu version of Jefferson Scale of Empathy-S (JSE-S)

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESEmpathy is an important factor in patient–physician relationship that results in better patient compliance, satisfaction, and clinical outcomes. Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) assesses empathy in health professionals (HP-version) and related students (S-version). It has been translated in over 50 languages and validation studies have been performed on these translated S-version of the scale. We decided to examine empathy of Pakistani student and to study factor structure and psychometric properties of the Urdu translation of the JSE-S.METHODS405 out of 521 students of Muhammad Medical College participated in the study. It was a cross-sectional study and the students filled in Urdu version of JSE-S questionnaire consisting of 20 items. Each item was scored on 7-points Likert scale. Total scores ranged from 20 to 140. Higher values indicated more positive attitudes toward empathic patient care, and therefore a higher degree of empathyRESULTSThe mean JSE-S empathy score of the medical students was 107.22 (+/- 12.844). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.684 for the overall measure. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test yielded an index of 0.764, suggesting a support for factor analysis. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was 985.518 and was highly significant (P = 000). A principal component analysis showed a three-factor solution that also provided support for the construct validity of the Urdu version of JSE S-version.CONCLUSIONThe Urdu version of JSE is a valid and reliable measure to tap empathy in a Pakistani medical student.

Psychometric properties of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy: a COSMIN systematic review protocol

Background Empathy is an important characteristic to possess for healthcare professionals. It has been found to improve communication between professionals and patients and to improve clinical health outcomes. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) was developed to measure this quality and has been used extensively, and psychometrically appraised, with a variety of cohorts and in different cultural environments. However, no study has been undertaken to systematically examine the methodological quality of studies which have assessed psychometric factors of the JSE. This systematic review will examine the quality of published papers that have reported on psychometric factors of the JSE. Methods A systematic review of studies which report on the psychometric properties of the JSE will be conducted. We will use a predefined search strategy to identify studies meeting the following eligibility criteria: original data is reported on for at least one of the psychometric measurement properties described in the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) Risk of Bias checklist, examines the JSE in a healthcare cohort (using the student, physician or health profession versions of the JSE), and is published from January 2001 and in the English language. Conference abstracts, editorials and grey literature will be excluded. Six electronic databases (Medline, EMBASE, PsychInfo, PubMed, Web of Science and CINAHL) will be systematically searched for articles meeting these criteria and studies will be assessed for eligibility by two review authors. The methodological quality of included papers will be examined using the COSMIN Risk of Bias checklist. Discussion A narrative description of the findings will be presented along with summary tables. Recommendations for use of the JSE with various cohorts and circumstances will be offered which may inform future research in this field. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42018111412