Changes of empathy in medical college and medical school students: 1-year follow up study

BACKGROUND: This study aims to determine the correlation between medical education systems, medical college (MC) and medical school (MS), and empathy by investigating the changes in empathy among students with each additional year of medical education. METHODS: The subjects were MC and MS students who had participated in the same study the previous year. All participants completed the same self-report instruments: a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, and the Korean edition of the Student Version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE-S-K), Among 334 students, the final analysis was conducted on the data provided by 113 MC and 120 MS students, excluding 101 with incomplete data. RESULTS: The age and sex did not affect the changes in empathy. Though the JSE-S-K score of MS was significantly higher than that of MC in initial investigation, this study found no difference of empathy between MC and MS. CONCLUSION: Empathy increased significantly after one year of medical education. The difference between two education systems, MC and MS, did not affect the changes in empathy

The Thirty-First Year Journey, the Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Objectives: The Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JKACAP) has had a 31 year-long history, sharing research and reviews of children and adolescents' mental health to promote voluntary participation and communication of the members of this society. Here, we have reviewed the detailed history of the journal from the perspective of developmental progression of JKACAP and discussed the direction of further development. Methods & Results: We reviewed the journey of the journal by focusing on the effort it took to take the journal to a global standard, and discussed the future direction of progress of JKACAP, based on the opinions raised at the Editor-in-Chiefs' reunion. Conclusion: JKACAP has just stepped on the path to globalization by being indexed in Emerging Sources Citation Index, PubMed Central, and Scopus. It is time to progress to another dimension, by acknowledging and overcoming more complicated issues, such as augmenting impact of the journal, expanding domains of interdisciplinary collaboration, and more global cooperation.N