Study on the Impact of Elderly Role Experience on Medical Students'Care and Empathy Abilities

LI Licheng; YANG Xinyi; CHEN Miaohong; HE Wen; YE Linpei; LI Junli; ZENG Jianhua; ZHAO Yuqin

doi:10.16458/j.cnki.1007-0893.2025.16.002

Abstract：Objective To explore the impact of elderly role experience teaching training on medical students'care and empathy abilities.Methods A total of 74 medical students who were on clinical rotation in the Geriatrics Department of the First Affiliated Hospital,Sun Yat-sen University from December 2024 to March 2025 were selected as the research subjects and received elderly role experience teaching courses.Before and after the training,questionnaires were conducted using the care ability inventory(CAI)and the Jefferson scale of empathy for health professionals(JSE-HPS).After the training,the students'satisfaction with the teaching was also surveyed.Results After the experience,the total score of the medical students'care ability was(185.53±9.60)points,which was higher than the score before the experience(178.84±13.43)points.The score of the courage dimension significantly increased compared to before the experience,with a statistically significant difference(P<0.05).After the experience,the total score of the medical students'empathy ability was lower than before,but the difference was not statistically significant(P>0.05).However,the score of the emotional care dimension significantly decreased compared to before,with a statistically significant difference(P<0.05).After the experience,72 students(97.30%)expressed satisfaction with the role experience,and 2 students(2.70%)chose the"general"option.Regarding the teaching design,70 students(94.59%)were satisfied,and 4 students(5.41%)chose the"general"option.Conclusion Medical students have a high satisfaction with the elderly role experience teaching.This teaching training can effectively enhance medical students'care abilities and help provide more humanized medical services for elderly patients in clinical practice.However,the training has a negative impact on medical students'empathy abilities,suggesting that the teaching methods for medical students'experiential learning need to be further optimized.