Perceptions of medical professionals regarding role of present medical education system in developing physician’s empathy-an observational study

Objectives: To detect how the positive and negative determinants of current medical education system during undergraduate and post graduate trainings affect the physicians' empathy. Material and Methods: This is a questionnaire based cross sectional observational study conducted after taking permission from the institutional ethics committee. All the practicing medical professionals belonging to different specialities were included in the study. For each questionnaire item, they were asked to respond either yes / no. Data was interpreted as percentage of acceptance and rejection. Results: 70% physicians believed that present medical education system is helpful in developing empathy still 80% were in favour of conducting classes on empathy during the medical education. 80% agreed to all the positive determinants of development of empathy while 40 % agreed to all the negative determinants of empathy. Conclusion: In present setup though empathy is not included in medical curriculum but the assumed positive determinants of empathy during the under and post graduate training seems to be cultivating empathy in our socio-responsive physicians.