Impact of a novel comprehensive empathy curriculum at Leicester Medical School: Protocol for a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT Background Empathy appears to decline throughout medical school and is highly variable among qualified healthcare practitioners. To address these problems, the Leicester Medical School has designed an enhanced empathy curriculum that runs throughout all five years of medical school. The impact of this curriculum must be measured. Objective To evaluate the impact of the enhanced empathy curriculum using qualitative and quantitative data. Study design Prospective longitudinal study Setting Leicester medical school Participants All students (from year one to five) at the Leicester Medical School will be eligible for participation. There are currently approximately 300 students in each of the five years of medical school and we anticipate that we will recruit approximately 100 medical students per medical school year for the quantitative data (total of 500 students) and approximately 10 students per medical school year for the qualitative data (total of 50 students). Data collection We will annually collect the following data for a period of seven years to ensure a comprehensive dataset for three full cohorts of medical students. The main reason for selecting the seven-year timeframe is that the empathy curriculum recently started in medical school (2022-2023 academic year), and it takes a few years for it to stabilise and yield meaningful results. Student empathy levels (for example, using the student version of the self-reported Jefferson Scale for Empathy (JSE-S) and the observer-reported Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure). Satisfaction with the empathy curriculum (using routinely collected student survey data). Satisfaction with the overall medical school curriculum (using routinely collected student survey data). Student experiences of the empathy curriculum (using qualitative student interviews with a purposive sample of five to 10 medical students from each year). Student well-being data (for example, the frequency and severity of well-being issues). Reporting elements We will report on: Number of individuals at each stage of the study. Descriptive data that includes (student characteristics and potential confounders). Outcome data (empathy levels, student satisfaction with curriculum, student experience). We will also report on the relationships between these data (for example between empathy levels and student satisfaction with curriculum). Dissemination Findings: will be disseminated through international conferences, news and peer-reviewed journals. Funding This study is funded by the Stoneygate Trust. The funder had no role in any part of the development or writing of this paper. Ethics The project and associated documents were approved by the University of Leicester Research Ethics Board (Ethical approval number: 42404-lk252-ls:medicine).