The correlation between positive attitude towards communication skills and empathy ability among medical students

Objective To evaluate the current status of medical students positive attitude towards communication skills and to explore the correlation between positive attitude towards communication skills and empathy ability among medical students. Methods One thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight medical students from three medical colleges in Shanghai were participated in this study, and questionnaire survey was conducted by cluster sampling of class from grade one to grade five. Descriptive analysis, t-test, F-test, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used for data analysis. Results The mean score of positive attitude dimension of CSAS among the participants was (51.68±6.760) and total mean score of empathy ability was (103.24±14.348). Positive correlations were found between positive attitude towards communication skills and empathy ability (r=0.588, P<0.01). Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that medical students' attitude towards medicine, the importance of communication skills and empathy ability had significant prediction on positive attitude towards communication skills. These variables can explain 0.359 of total variance. After controlling the two other variables, empathy ability can explain 0.272 of the variance. Conclusions Communication skills attitude of medical students was positive on the whole. Enhancing their empathy ability was beneficial to improve their positive attitude towards communication skills. Key words: Medical student; Communication skills attitude; Empathy ability