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Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Mary Catherine Beach, Johns Hopkins University,
- Second opponent: Professor Rolf Wynn, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Anne Helene Kveim Lie, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor emeritus Magne Nylenna, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Reidar Pedersen, University of Oslo
Summary
Medical students' self-reported empathy has been shown to decline when initiating their clinical years. However, the interactional aspects of students' empathy have received sparse attention.
The aims of this thesis were to explore empathy in student-patient clinical interactions. We employed qualitative methods to analyze video recordings of students' clinical encounters and conducted semi-structured interviews.
Faced with patients' emotional expressions, students would often proceed to the next question rather than engage in dialogue. They mostly allowed the patient to finish and addressed the expression from a medical perspective. Afterwards, they reassured the patient with information. When expressions were explored further, it was done in an objective and descriptive manner.
In interviews, students reported an underlying conflict between relationship establishment and the obtainment of biomedical information. This conflict led them to frequently overlook opportunities to demonstrate understanding and empathy for the patient's perspective.
This study concludes that students' communication skills should not be assessed without considering the students' own accounts of their behavior.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.