Aim: The aim of our study; to gather information about medical students empathy tendency level and ommunication skills attitudes and to make suggestions for shaping education with the results.
Method: In this study, before the communication skills course of Düzce University Faculty of Medicine, to determine the students empathy tendency and communication skills attitudes, students were asked to fill in the Empathic Tendency Scale (EEÖ), which consists of 20 questions developed by Dökmen (1988) and Developing Communication Skills Assessment Scale consisting of 25 questions developed by Korkut (İBDO).
Results: Of the 94 students, 51.1% (s = 46) were male and 48.9% (s = 46) were female. The rate of students who had previously learned about empathic tendency (29.8%) was significantly lower than the rate of non-knowledgeable students (70.2%). Again, the rate of students who had previously been informed about communication skills (23.4%) was significantly lower than the rate of non-knowledgeable students (76.6%). When the information sources of the individuals who were informed about empathic tendency were examined, it was observed that 39.4% of the individuals were internet, 39.4% of them were books and 21.4% of them were seminar, but there was no significant difference between the rates. There was a positively low correlation between empathic tendency total scale score and communication skills total scale score. According to the gender, there was no significant difference in the mean rank values of the empathic tendency scale. There is a significant difference in terms of average rank value of communication skills scale by gender. Female students communication skills, total scale average rank value, communication skills of men were found to be significantly higher than total scale average rank value.
Conclusion: In the process of physician-patient relationship, the impressions obtained during the interviews are very important for the definition and solution of the problem. In order to make an effective evaluation, empathy tendency is as important as the training, knowledge and experience of the doctor. During the medical education, prospective physicians are required to be active in the education curriculum in order to improve their empathy sensitivity and communication skills. It is suggested that the studies will provide awareness in terms of dissemination of communication skills education in medical education.
Key words: Empathy tendency, communication skills, medical education
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