Perception of Empathy Among Medical Students at IMU University During Patient-doctor Encounter: A Qualitative Analysis

The development of empathy in professionalism is vital and certain for each medical school and medical association because there is reasonable evidence to suggest that empathic doctors can diagnose diseases more accurately. This study aimed to explore the medical students’ perception of empathy during patient-doctor encounters. This was a qualitative analysis approach using a combination of an open-ended question and a focused group interview. A total of 302 undergraduate medical students were given an open-ended question. A total of 210 medical students responded to the question, and six were involved in a focused group discussion. Three themes and nine subthemes have emerged from both the free-text answers and focused group discussion. The themes were: (1) perceived impacts; (2) empathy mainly delivered through nonverbal communication, with subthemes of understanding, standing in others’ shoes, nonverbal affirmation of feelings, and professional boundaries; and (3) doctor can be less empathic, with subthemes of interruptions and believe. The findings presented three main perspectives: the positive impacts of having empathy during a patient-doctor encounter; how could a medical doctor express empathy; and the barriers to empathy expression during a patient-doctor encounter. The findings of the study provide a clearer picture of the dual route of the empathy model, including the factors that could influence empathy expression (i.e., prior knowledge and attention), and prosocial behaviour (the outcome of empathy expression) that could influence the doctor-patient outcome.