Clinical trial NCT04180891: Empathy and Emotional Intelligence Promoted by the Selection Process in 1st Year of Health Studies at the Paris University Medical School
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
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Health Studies First-year Course Selection
Keywords: empathy
emotional intelligence
multiple mini-interviews
Lead sponsor: University of Paris 5 - Rene Descartes
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2019-11-29
Enrollment: 1000
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: The study population will come from the all students enrolled in first year of health studies in the Paris University of Medicine for the academic year 2019/2020.

All of the students can enter the study if the answer the questionnaires, regardless of age or gender.

Brief summary: 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.

Detailed description: 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.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* students registered in the first year of heath studies in Paris University Medical School

Exclusion Criteria:

* refusal of consent

Primary outcomes:
measure: Empathy score
timeFrame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Secondary empathy score (1)
timeFrame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
measure: Secondary empathy score (2)
timeFrame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
measure: Emotional intelligence score
timeFrame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Paris
country: France
facility: Paris University of Medicine
state: Ile De France
Study officials:
affiliation: Paris Descartes University of Medicine
name: Philippe Jaury, Pr
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References: