Assessing Pharmacy Student Self-Reported Empathic Tendencies

Objectives. The objective of this study was to analyze pharmacy students' self-reported empathy scores before and after empathy training. Methods. In a communication skills course, the La Monica Empathy Profile (LEP) was administered to a convenience sample of fourth-year pharmacy students before and after they received empathy education. Outcome measures in this study were changes in any of the 5 LEP modes of empathy. A control group was not used. Results. Of the 92 students in the course, 83 (90.2%) completed the study. A significant increase in the LEP dimension of "perceiving feelings and listening" (p = 0.019), as well as "respect of self and others" (p = 0.006) was observed. There was a significant decrease in the dimension of "openness, honesty and flexibility" (p = 0.002). Conclusions. There may be an association between empathy training and changes in pharmacy students' self-reported empathic attitudes and behaviors