The Jefferson Scale of Empathy: a nationwide study of measurement properties, underlying components, latent variable structure, and national norms in medical students.

The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) is a broadly used instrument developed to measure empathy in the context of health professions education and patient care. Evidence in support of psychometrics of the JSE has been reported in health professions students and practitioners with the exception of osteopathic medical students. This study was designed to examine measurement properties, underlying components, and latent variable structure of the JSE in a nationwide sample of first-year matriculants at U.

Can communication skills training improve empathy? A six-year longitudinal study of medical students in Japan.

Background: Empathy is an important component of overall clinical competence; thus, enhancing empathy in medical education is essential for quality patient care.

Aim: This longitudinal study was designed to address the following questions: 1. Can a targeted educational program in communication skills training enhance empathy in medical students? and 2.

Long-Term Retention of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Training During Residency.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation developed milestones for evaluation of resident physicians that include proper musculoskeletal ultrasound examination of major joints. To date, there have been no published data demonstrating acquisition and retention of these skills and correlation with the milestone evaluation. The investigators developed and implemented a curriculum in musculoskeletal ultrasound examination for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residents at a large academic medical center.

The effects of neurologic assessment E-learning in nurses.

Background: A firm understanding of the preliminary assessment of a patient with neurological disorders is needed for ensuring optimal patient outcomes.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of using e-learning on neurologic assessment knowledge, ability, and self-confidence among nurses.

Design: This study used a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design.

Patient Perceptions of Clinician's Empathy: Measurement and Psychometrics.

The prominence of reciprocal understanding in patient-doctor empathic engagement implies that patient perception of clinician's empathy has an important role in the assessment of the patient-clinician relationship. In response to a need for an assessment tool to measure patient's views of clinician empathy, we developed a brief (5-item) instrument, This review article reports evidence in support of the validity and reliability of the JSPPPE.

Medical School Anatomy and Pathology Workshops for High School Students Enhance Learning and Provide Inspiration for Careers in Medicine.

"Anatomy and Pathology Workshop" is a cadaver-based outreach program that models medical education to large groups of high school students. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of this program on students' knowledge of anatomy and interest in biomedical science. A total of 144 high school students participated in the workshop in 2015.

Enhancing Student Empathetic Engagement, History-Taking, and Communication Skills During Electronic Medical Record Use in Patient Care.

Purpose: To examine whether an intervention on proper use of electronic medical records (EMRs) in patient care could help improve medical students' empathic engagement, and to test the hypothesis that the training would reduce communication hurdles in clinical encounters.

Method: Seventy third-year medical students from the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University were randomly divided into intervention and control groups during their six-week pediatric clerkship in 2012-2013. The intervention group received a one-hour training session on EMR-specific communication skills, including discussion of EMR use, the SALTED mnemonic and technique (Set-up, Ask, Listen, Type, Exceptions, Documentation), and role-plays.

What Matters More About the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy? Their Underlying Constructs or Their Relationships With Pertinent Measures of Clinical Competence and Patient Outcomes?

In their study published in this issue of Academic Medicine, Costa and colleagues confirmed the underlying constructs of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) in medical students. The authors of this Commentary propose that in comparing two instruments that both purport to measure empathy, researchers or test users must pay close attention to the target populations, the conceptualizations of empathy, and the validity evidence in relation to pertinent criterion measures. The Commentary's authors draw attention to the fact that the IRI was developed for administration to the general population, whereas the JSE was developed specifically for administration to students and practitioners of health professions.

Evidence of potential bias in a comparison of β blockers and calcium channel blockers in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and acute coronary syndrome: results of a multinational study.

Objectives: A number of observational studies have reported that, in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), β blockers (BBs) decrease risk of mortality and COPD exacerbations. To address important methodological concerns of these studies, we compared the effectiveness and safety of cardioselective BBs versus non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers (non-DHP CCBs) in patients with COPD and acute coronary syndromes (ACS) using a propensity score (PS)-matched, active comparator, new user design. We also assessed for potential unmeasured confounding by examining a short-term COPD hospitalisation outcome.

Variation in hospital utilization at the end of life for patients with cancer in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.

Introduction: Despite the preference of many patients to die at home, high proportions of patients with advanced cancer undergo major procedures, receive intensive care, and die in the hospital. The goal of this study is to examine variation in hospital utilization and site of death for patients dying with poor-prognosis cancer in the Regione Emilia-Romagna (RER), Italy.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, population-level study using administrative data.

Estimating the Net Career Income of a Geriatrician and a Nurse Practitioner: Still Want to Be a Doctor?

Objectives: With a continual shortage of geriatricians, adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioners have assumed a greater role in the delivery of outpatient care for older adults. Given the long duration of physician training, the high cost of medical school, and the lower salaries compared with subspecialists, the financial advantage of a career as a geriatrician as opposed to a nurse practitioner is uncertain. This study compares the estimated career earnings of a geriatrician and an adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner.

Addressing the Shortage of Geriatricians: What Medical Educators Can Learn From the Nurse Practitioner Training Model.

Physicians' career interest in geriatric medicine continues to wane at a time when the health care needs of older adults are increasing. Nurse practitioners have helped fill the U.S.

An Equivalence Trial Comparing Instructor-Regulated With Directed Self-Regulated Mastery Learning of Advanced Cardiac Life Support Skills.

Introduction: Instructor-led simulation-based mastery learning of advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) skills is an effective and focused approach to competency-based education. Directed self-regulated learning (DSRL) may be an effective and less resource-intensive way to teach ACLS skills.

Methods: Forty first-year internal medicine residents were randomized to either simulation-based DSRL or simulation-based instructor-regulated learning (IRL) of ACLS skills using a mastery learning model.

A multi-institutional study using simulation to teach cardiopulmonary physical examination and diagnosis skills to physician assistant students.

Purpose: Research demonstrates limitations in the ability of health care trainees/practitioners, including physician assistants (PAs), to identify important cardiopulmonary examination findings and diagnose corresponding conditions. Studies also show that simulation-based training leads to improved performance and that these skills can transfer to real patients. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a newly developed curriculum incorporating simulation with deliberate practice for teaching cardiopulmonary physical examination/bedside diagnosis skills in the PA population.

Eleven Years of Data on the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Medical Student Version (JSE-S): Proxy Norm Data and Tentative Cutoff Scores.

Objective: This study was designed to provide typical descriptive statistics, score distributions and percentile ranks of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Medical Student version (JSE-S) of male and female medical school matriculants to serve as proxy norm data and tentative cutoff scores.

Subjects And Methods: The participants were 2,637 students (1,336 women and 1,301 men) who matriculated at Sidney Kimmel (formerly Jefferson) Medical College between 2002 and 2012, and completed the JSE at the beginning of medical school. Information extracted from descriptive statistics, score distributions and percentile ranks for male and female matriculants were used to develop proxy norm data and tentative cutoff scores.

Increased rates of pregnancy complications in women with celiac disease.

Background: Celiac disease is an immune-mediated small bowel disorder that develops in genetically susceptible individuals upon exposure to dietary gluten. Celiac disease could have extra-intestinal manifestations that affect women's reproductive health. The aim of this study was to investigate fertility and outcomes of pregnancy among women with celiac disease.

Assessing adverse events of postprostatectomy radiation therapy for prostate cancer: evaluation of outcomes in the Regione Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Purpose: Although the likelihood of radiation-related adverse events influences treatment decisions regarding radiation therapy after prostatectomy for eligible patients, the data available to inform decisions are limited. This study was designed to evaluate the genitourinary, gastrointestinal, and sexual adverse events associated with postprostatectomy radiation therapy and to assess the influence of radiation timing on the risk of adverse events.

Methods: The Regione Emilia-Romagna Italian Longitudinal Health Care Utilization Database was queried to identify a cohort of men who received radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer during 2003 to 2009, including patients who received postprostatectomy radiation therapy.

Can empathy, other personality attributes, and level of positive social influence in medical school identify potential leaders in medicine?

Purpose: To test the hypotheses that medical students recognized by peers as the most positive social influencers would score (1) high on measures of engaging personality attributes that are conducive to relationship building (empathy, sociability, activity, self-esteem), and (2) low on disengaging personality attributes that are detrimental to interpersonal relationships (loneliness, neuroticism, aggression-hostility, impulsive sensation seeking).

Method: The study included 666 Jefferson Medical College students who graduated in 2011-2013. Students used a peer nomination instrument to identify classmates who had a positive influence on their professional and personal development.

Standardized patient assessment of medical student empathy: ethnicity and gender effects in a multi-institutional study.

Purpose: To examine, primarily, the effects of ethnicity and gender, which could introduce bias into scoring, on standardized patient (SP) assessments of medical students and, secondarily, to examine medical students' self-reported empathy for ethnicity and gender effects so as to compare self-perception with the perceptions of SPs.

Method: Participants were 577 students from four medical schools in 2012: 373 (65%) were white, 79 (14%) black/African American, and 125 (22%) Asian/Pacific Islander. These students were assessed by 84 SPs: 62 (74%) were white and 22 (26%) were black/African American.

The effects of mobile applications in cardiopulmonary assessment education.

Background: Mobile applications can be used as effective simulations for nursing education. However, little is known regarding the effects of mobile application-mediated training on nursing. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of mobile applications by comparing the effectiveness of a high-fidelity human patient simulator to that of a mobile application on student learning.

Evaluation of the validity of medical students' self-assessments of proficiency in clinical simulations.

Background: The accuracy of self-assessments has not been well supported in the literature. This study was undertaken to examine the validity of medical students' ratings of their proficiency during encounters with simulated patients and simulation devices.

Methods: Confidential self-assessments for 10 skills were collected from 195 students during a formal clinical skills assessment related to 3 cases at the end of a surgery clerkship.