Health Studies First-year Course Selection Clinical Trial
Official title:
Profiles of Empathy and Emotional Intelligence Promoted by Written Examination Combined to Oral Interviews During the Selection of 1st Year Health Students at the Paris University of Medicine
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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