Background: Empathy is the ability to understand the patient’s situation, perspective, and feelings, and act on that understanding with the patient in a helpful way. The aspects of the undergraduate course such as the context and timing of clinical experience, the academic curriculum, the communication skills training, and the other specific educational interventions play an important role in the development of empathy. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the empathy among different batches of MBBS students and to find out the factors associated with empathy in a medical college in Kerala. Methodology: After obtaining institutional Ethical Clearance, data were obtained from 125 students through the self-administered Jefferson scale of an empathy questionnaire (student version). Various factors that influence empathy were also noted. Results: Out of 125 students studied, 33 (26.4%) were from the 1st semester, 31 (24.8%) from the 4th, 30 (24.0%) from the 7th and remaining 31 (24.8%) from the 9th semester. First semester students had the highest mean score of 112.79 (± 9.027) and the 4th semester have the least mean score of 106.74 (±12.152). Even though the final year students with a mean score of 108.81±12.867 showed an increase in empathy as compared to 4th-semester students, a general trend in the decline of empathy was seen
as semesters progressed. Conclusion: Empathy scores in students declined in the pre-clinical years and showed a decrease during the clinical years. More research is needed to establish if our clinical training impacts empathy negatively, and if so, there is a need for interventions to mitigate this impact.

Keywords: Empathy; Medical Students; Assessment Impact; Interventions.