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Published on:27th Dec, 2014
Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, 2015; 49(1):31-39
Pharmaceutical Education | doi:10.5530/ijper.49.1.5

Empathy In Chinese Pharmacy Undergraduates: Implication for Integrating Humanities Into Professional Pharmacy Education


Authors and affiliation (s):

Lei Li1, Jun Wang1*, Xian-min Hu1, Xia-min Hu and Cui Xu

Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan-430065, China

Abstract:

At present, fostering and promoting empathy, an important humanistic quality, are believed ethical imperatives, and should be carried through the pharmacy education to facilitate the interpersonal and philosophical development of healthcare students. A cross-sectional study used the JSE-HPS (Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Profession Student version) to assess 263 Chinese pharmacy undergraduates from 1st to 4th year at Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Attached to the scale was a survey containing questions on demographics and favorite implementation model of humanistic education. Mean score of JSE-HPS was 112.58. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.81. Three factors emerging in the factor analysis of JSE-HPS are “perspective taking”, “compassionate care” and “ability to stand in patients’ shoes”. And empathy score of 4th-year students was highest. In addition, the three most popular implementation models were “Social activities”, “Extracurricular activity on pharmacy humanistic education”, and “Humanistic education should be infiltrated and integrated within the existing professional curriculum”, respectively. Our study findings indicate that humanistic education in the foundations courses for 1st to 3rd academic year pharmacy students need to be focus on. For successful practice, humanistic education that promotes empathy has to be integrated within the existing training programs for pharmacy undergraduate students in a vivid way.

Key words: Empathy, Jefferson scale, pharmacy education, humanistic education, pharmacist-patient communication.

 




 

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The Official Journal of Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI)
(Registered under Registration of Societies Act XXI of 1860 No. 122 of 1966-1967, Lucknow)

Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (IJPER) [ISSN-0019-5464] is the official journal of Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI) and is being published since 1967.

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