The Empathy in Action module is a newly introduced, 5 credit-module within the undergraduate medical foundation year curriculum at the University of Galway. Co-designed with people living with chronic illness, the module embeds Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) and Lived Experience as key teaching and learning methods to strengthen empathy in these future healthcare professionals.
This summer studentship will contribute to the evaluation of the first full cohort of 110 students who completed the module using a mixed (qualitative/quantitative) methods approach. The project will involve a qualitative analysis of students’ reflective diaries written after three lived-experience panels involving people living with diabetes. An analysis of the data from the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) administered pre- and post-module delivery will be undertaken. Interviews will be conducted with those individuals with lived experience who participated in the module to gain their insights into how the module might be enhanced. Finally, the project will (through simulation) involve living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes (each for one week) and exploring Photovoice as a potential method of capturing the emotional aspects of empathy training in future module delivery.
The project aims to:
Identify key themes emerging from student reflections relating to empathy, communication, and understanding of the patient experience.
Interpret summary JSE findings to contextualise observed qualitative patterns.
Enhance the summer student’s personal understanding of lived experience teaching and learning
Generate recommendations to refine the Empathy in Action module for the next academic year.
This research will deepen our understanding of how PPI-based teaching and learning can influence empathy development in medical education. Findings from this summer research project will be applicable to other areas of health services research and education.