Empathy and Emotional Intelligence Promoted by the Selection Process in 1st Year of Health Studies at the Paris University Medical School

Health Studies First-year Course Selection

empathy, emotional intelligence, multiple mini-interviews

As the interpersonal skills such as empathy and emotional intelligence take more and more importance in the medical education, the Paris University of Medicine has introduced for the first time in 2019 some multiple mini-interviews (MMI) in addition to the traditional written examination, to graduate the 1st year student in health studies. The selection process aims at promoting students with high academic results but also with good interpersonal abilities. In this new selection process, MMI will be used in addition to written tests, but only to attribute the last places available after a first ranking based on academic results. So after the written examination, students with the best written exam marks will directly graduate, others will require MMI to graduate and some will directly fail. The main hypothesis is that this selection procedure may promote stronger interpersonal abilities profiles in the group that succeed to enter one of the health studies course than in the group that failed. This study will measure the clinical empathy and emotional intelligence abilities of all the 1st year students applying for this new selection process, using validate self-administered questionnaires. Then the investigators will compare the scores of empathy and emotional intelligence in the group that succeed the selection process, to the group that failed. Furthermore, in the success group, the investigators will compare the scores between students that directly graduated and students that required MMI. Scores will also be compared considering some sociodemographic data. The result of that studies could give strong arguments to modify the selection process and extend the use of MMI in medical school in France.

INTRODUCTION : Considering empathy and emotional intelligence in the early stages of health studies has become a significant concern, all the more as empathy level among medicine students seems to decrease by the years. This loss of clinical empathy takes particularly place after the 3rd year of medicine studies, when students start being in contact with real patients. Starting from that, the investigators will study if the selection that occurs by the end of the 1st year of health studies in France, and which select students that can enter one of the course (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, midwifery), is designed to promote not only academic skills but also interpersonal abilities. That selection procedure is especially important because it will determine the profiles of health professionals that will enter medical course and will be the future practitioner. In order to to consider more the interpersonal abilities of the students during the selection process, some Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) have been introduced. The MMI will be used to attribute the last 20% of the places available (80% of the places will be directly attributed by the classic written examen) METHODS : In this research, it will be proposed to all the 1st year health students registered in Paris University of medicine for the year 2019/2020 (about 1200 students) to complete four self-administered questionnaire : the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (student version),the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) and the Emotional Expressivity Scale (EES). The students will get a personal access to the questionnaires by their digital workspace on the University's website. By the end of the year, they will be separated in 2 groups : students that have succeeded to the selection process and that can enter one of the health course, and students that failed. Then the investigators will compare the scores of the several self-administered questionnaires in the 2 groups. OBJECTIVE : That study wants to determine if the selection process in first year of health student in the Paris University of Medicine is able to promote students profiles with strong interpersonal abilities so as academics skills. That study will also try to determine if the introduction of MMI has an impact on the empathy scores of the selected students.

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