The impact of communication skills course on the levels of empathy among undergraduate dental students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences: A preliminary study

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare the levels of empathy in 8 th -semester undergraduate dental students at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU), who had completed the communication skills course (CSC), versus the students in the 9 th -semester who had not completed the course. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Persian-translated Jefferson Scale of Empathy of Health Professions Student version questionnaires were distributed among the participants. Statistical analyses were conducted in SPSS using T -tests and one-way ANOVA (α = 0.05) RESULTS: 65 students, including 38 females (58.5%) and 27 males (41.5%), were included. Nearly 85% of participants were 20–23 years of age. Among the participants, 49.2% had finished the CSC, while 50.8% had not. While female participants demonstrated higher empathy scores than males, the difference was not statistically significant ( P = 0.078). No significant difference was observed between different age groups regarding empathy scores ( P = 0.402). Students who had completed the CSC exhibited significantly lower empathy scores compared to students who had not completed the course ( P = 0.013). CONCLUSION: In this study, achieving success in a CSC was not the exclusive predictor of elevated empathy scores among dental students at SBMU, since upper-level students who had not completed the course displayed higher empathy scores than lower-level students who had completed it. The CSC presented to students at SBMU did not include empathy as a distinct teaching subject. Therefore, it is recommended to move from a curriculum centered on technical aspects to one that prioritizes patient well-being by covering empathy-related subjects.