The Effectiveness of Using Empathy Courses to Guide OT Students in Case-base Clinical Reasoning

July 28, 2022 updated by: Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital

The Effectiveness of Using Empathy Experience Courses to Guide Occupational Therapy Students in Case-base Clinical Reasoning- A Pilot Study

Clinical reasoning is an important cognitive process in medical decision making. In recent years, medical education advocates holistic medicine, but systematic learning is rare in school education.Therefore, this study used an empathy experience course to conduct a case-oriented clinical reasoning training course to improve the empathy and clinical reasoning skills of pre-clinical students in occupational therapy through four sessions.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Objective: To investigate effectiveness of using empathy experience courses to guide the students who prior to occupational therapy(OT) practice in case-base clinical reasoning.

Materials and Methods: 30 students were recruited from 8 universities in Taiwan and randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group was given four 3-hour training sessions over 2 weeks, which included group instruction on empathy experience, clinical reasoning, and functional therapy case-oriented learning, while the control group was given case studies. Tests were administered before and after the series of sessions, including case report writing, C-JES-HPS, SACRR, and a follow-up visit at the end of the first phase of clinical practice using the C-JES-HPS and SACRR; course satisfaction surveys were completed after each session and at the follow-up visit to observe course satisfaction, usefulness, and recommendations. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 20.0) with a significance level of 0.05. Univariate analyses with repeated measures 2-way analysis of variance were used to compare changes in empathy and clinical reasoning ability between the two groups of subjects and course satisfaction was presented as descriptive statistics. It was hypothesized that a case-oriented clinical reasoning training program using an empathy experience program would improve empathy and clinical reasoning skills in pre-practicum students in occupational therapy.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Taiwan
      • New Taipei City, Taiwan
        • Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

20 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Occupational therapy students from National Taiwan University, Kaohsiung Medical University, Sun Yat-sen Medical University, National Cheng Kung University, Chang Gung University, IShou University, Fu Jen Catholic University, and Asia University who have completed their major credits and will be interning in a clinical hospital.
  • Must be at least 20 years old and under 65 years old.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Those who are unable to attend the whole course.
  • Those who have not completed their school credits and are unable to go to the clinical hospital for internship.
  • Those who do not speak Chinese or English as their native language.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental group
The experimental group was given four 3-hour training sessions over 2 weeks, which included group instruction on empathy experience, clinical reasoning, and functional therapy case-oriented learning.
Behavioral: Empathy experience courses and case-base clinical reasoning
Four 3-hour training sessions over 2 weeks, which included group instruction on empathy experience, clinical reasoning, and functional therapy case-oriented learning.
Active Comparator: Control group
The control group was given case studies(text).
Other: case studies
active control: case studies(text)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Chinese version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Profession Students
Time Frame: Change from Baseline at 2 weeks
A total of 20 questions were used to self-assess participants' empathy status and were scored using a 7-point Likert scale. The content covered three sections, including 10 questions on the perspective taking section, 8 questions on the compassionate care section, and 2 questions on standing in the patient's shoes.
Change from Baseline at 2 weeks
The Self-Assessment of Clinical Reflection and Reasoning
Time Frame: Change from Baseline at 2 weeks
A 26-item, five-point Likert scale was used to self-assess clinical reasoning skills, including strongly disagree, disagree, unsure, agree, and strongly agree.
Change from Baseline at 2 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Satisfaction Questionnaire
Time Frame: up to 2 weeks
The researchers designed the form to understand the subjects' satisfaction with the content of the training course, the usefulness of the training course for clinical practice, and their suggestions for the training course. Satisfaction with the content of the training course and the usefulness of the training course for clinical practice were rated on a five-point Likert scale of very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, fair, satisfied, and very satisfied.
up to 2 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Hanyun Hsiao, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Anticipated)

August 1, 2022

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

November 30, 2023

Study Completion (Anticipated)

November 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 21, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 28, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

July 29, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 29, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 28, 2022

Last Verified

June 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • TMU-JIRB N202112011

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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