Designing, implementation and evaluation of story reading: a solution to increase general empathy in medical students

Communication and mutual understanding among healthcare providers is a significant concern within the healthcare system, and enhancing empathy is one way to foster effective communication and mutual understanding. The aim of this research is to evaluate and compare the impact of story reading on the level of empathy in medical students at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. The study employed an intervention educational design (a quasi-experimental), with a convenience sample of 51 medical students selected as the statistical population. The process of story reading was conducted over six two-hour virtual sessions in the students' classroom, spanning six weeks. Selected stories were discussed in an online virtual class under the supervision of an instructor, focusing on story elements. To assess students' empathy in this educational program, the Davis General Empathy Questionnaire was administered before each of the six sessions, after, and one week later at the end of the course. Statistical analysis of the collected data was performed using repeated measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni's post hoc test through SPSS version 28 software, with a significance level set at 0.05. The findings revealed that 27 participants (58.7%) were female students, with the remaining being male students, having an average age of 19.5 ± 0.86 years. The level of general empathy among the students significantly increased after the intervention compared to before the intervention (P