Educación Médica Superior
ISSN 0864-2141 ISSN 1561-2902
CAMACHO, Gustavo; RODAS ZAMBRANO, María Irene CARRION SUAREZ, Freddy. Empathy capacity of medical teachers from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. []. , 33, 3, e1724. 01--2019. ISSN 0864-2141.
Introduction:
Empathy is a fundamental factor in the development of interpersonal relationships, useful as it is to understand the problems, achievements, illusions and all the feelings of an individual. In education it also plays a crucial role, since it is a key element for an appropriate relationship between teachers and students.
Objective:
Determine the empathy capacity of teachers from the Medical School at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador from October to December 2017.
Methods:
A descriptive study was conducted which was based on surveys: Baron-Cohen's test both virtually and physically. A total 97 teachers responded to our survey.
Results:
Empathy capacity was found to be high in 91.8% and low in 8.2% of the teachers surveyed. Younger teachers had greater empathy capacity than elder teachers. On the other hand, teachers with a shorter service time at the Medical School displayed better empathy capacity than teachers of more years' experience.
Conclusions:
Most of the teachers at the Medical School of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador had high empathy capacity. A strong relationship was found between teachers' age and their empathy capacity.
: teacher; empathy; medicine; Baron-Cohen's test.