Introduction:

Empathy with the patient is an important attribute that contributes to the success of treatment. This attribute must be object of teaching in the training stage of the student of the health sciences.

Objective:

To evaluate the levels of empathy and its components in students of the Obstetrics course at the University of Norbert Wiener, Peru.

Material and Methods:

Design: cross-sectional study. Participants: The sample was composed of 219 first-year to fifth-year students. Measurements: The Jefferson Empathy Scale, S version for students was applied. The internal reliability of the data was estimated using the general Cronbach's alpha, interclass correlation coefficient, Hotelling's T2, and Tukey non-additive test; the mean and standard deviation were estimated. A bi-factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), model III was applied in the academic years, the genders and the interaction of these two factors.

Results:

The empathic level of obstetrics students has an average of 105,95 points, out of a maximum of 140, and it is higher (in absolute values) than other values observed in analogous measurements in Latin America. In general, there are no significant differences in empathy between academic years and genders, and in the components of empathy.

Conclusions:

The average level of empathy among obstetrics students at Wiener University shows relative little growth per year of study.

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