Mindfulness and empathy in medical doctor students. An Italian study.

Introduction Mindfulness practice has shown benefits for reducing stress in health professionals; few is known about the basic profile of mindfulness attitude in medical doctor students. In the medical training, students are supposed to attend the medical ward form the third year on, and several studies enhance a dramatic decrease in empathy level due to the effect of the “hidden curriculum” (the modeling effect of hospital medical tutors). Our study explores the baseline relation between mindfulness and empathic responding at the beginning and at the end of the medical training. Method A sample of 544 first-year medical students and 194 fifth year medical students of the Milano-Bicocca School of Medicine completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), that assess three empathy dimensions. We a) compared our students FFMQ profile with the normative Italian sample; b) 1st-year medicine students and 5th-year students (after two years and a half of ward experience) profile c) the relationship between the FFMQ and the empathy profile of IRI Results Medical students showed higher “Acting with Awareness” level than the normative student sample; mindfulness facets are significantly associated with empathy, predicting about 15 percent of the variance in empathy variables; no significant differences in mindfulness facets between freshmen and senior medical students were found. Discussion Medical doctor students have a different mindfulness profile from other university students; the relation between mindfulness and empathy is confirmed; the hospital internship seems to have no impact on empathy and mindfulness level, partially because the training has a great focus on communication and human relationship.