(189) Results from a longitudinal curriculum to develop empathy in PharmD students

Objective : Empathy is an essential skill when pharmacists are interacting with patients. Little has been published regarding the sustainability of empathic skills following curricular interventions. This study investigates a longitudinal curricular model for developing empathy in a Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum to determine if empathic skills are sustained over a 3-year time period.

Methods: Students from the 2022 cohort of a 3-year PharmD program participated in a longitudinal curricular intervention to develop empathic skills. Only results from students providing consent were evaluated. Team-based learning, role-play and objective structured clinical exams focusing on empathic skills were utilized over the 2-year instructional period. Empathic skills were assessed at baseline, annually and after Year-3. Students self-assessed their empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professional Student (JSE-HPS). Standardized patients (SP) also assessed students’ empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician Empathy (JSPPPE). Results from the JSE-HPS and JSPPPE were compared annually.

Results: A total of 59 PharmD students from the 2022 cohort provided consent. Self-assessed empathy using the JSE-HPS did not significantly change over the three-year period (average baseline score 110.61, average final score 108.94; p = 0.9045). The SP-rated empathy using the JSPPPE significantly increased from an average score of 21.02 at baseline to 27.51 (p = 0.0001322) at study completion which may suggest that participants learned to display empathic behaviors as observed by SPs even though their self-rating did not change.

Conclusions: The use of a longitudinal curriculum to develop empathic skills in PharmD students may improve learners’ ability to demonstrate empathy to patients despite a lack in self-assessed empathy.