Are there differences in health professionals’ empathy due to academic and clinical experience?

• Autores: Putrino, Natalia; Tabullo, Ángel Javier; Mesurado, Belén; Richaud de Minzi, María Cristina
• Año de publicación: 2018
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Current Psychology (2018)
• Materia: EMPATIA; MEDICOS; PSICOLOGOS; PROFESIONALES; EXPERIENCIA
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina

Fil: Putrino, Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro interdisciplinario de investigaciones en psicología matemática y experimental; Argentina
Fil: Putrino, Natalia. Universidad Abierta Interamericana. Facultad de Psicología y Relaciones Humanas; Argentina
Fil: Tabullo, Ángel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Centíficas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales. Grupo de Lingüística y Neurobiología Experimental del Lenguaje; Argentina
Fil: Tabullo, Ángel. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina
Fil: Mesurado, Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro interdisciplinario de investigaciones en psicología matemática y experimental; Argentina
Fil: Richaud de Minzi, María Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro interdisciplinario de investigaciones en psicología matemática y experimental; Argentina
Abstract: The health professional’s empathy has a positive effect on treatment outcomes and the well-being of both patients and professionals. The aim of this research was to assess the empathy levels of first-year medical and psychology students and to compare these levels with those of trained psychologists and physicians. In addition, we also analysed the potential effects of years of professional practice and the average number of patients treated on the empathy of professionals. We evaluated cognitive and emotional empathy through the Interpersonal Reactive Index and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task. The results showed that perspective taking in medical students was lower than that of psychotherapists, and psychotherapists and physicians reported lower levels of personal distress than psychology students. We did not find evidence of general detrimental effects of clinical experience on the capacity to feel sympathy and compassion towards others, but we did find lower empathic concern levels in those professionals with higher workloads. Considering that these effects have been seldom studied among psychologists, additional longitudinal research might indicate how empathy is influenced by training over time. On the other hand, since emotional distress can be detrimental to the professional’s performance, our results suggest that empathy needs to be promoted and trained, in order to preserve the ability to feel with others without falling into an extreme of emotional distress.