Establishing and evaluating a Balint group for fourth-year medical students at an Irish University.

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Authors

McManus, Sorcha
Killeen, David
Hartnett, Yvonne
Fitzgerald, Gearoid
Murphy, Kieran C

Issue Date

2019-08-20

Type

Journal Article

Language

en

Keywords

Balint , empathy , medical students , resilience

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Abstract

The study was designed to establish and evaluate the impact of a 6-week Balint group on empathy and resilience in fourth-year medical students during their psychiatry rotation.
This prospective study used the Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Student Version and the Brief Resilience Scale before and after 6-week Balint groups. Participating students also completed a qualitative assessment of their experience.
Students who participated were enthusiastic regarding the value of Balint groups in promoting self-reflection and gaining insight into self- and patient-care dynamics. There was a significant difference in empathy scores pre- and post-Balint intervention. There was no significant difference in resilience scores.
The establishment of a 6-week Balint group for fourth-year medical students was successful in increasing empathy. Students reported a positive view of Balint and its beneficial role in this study group.

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Citation

McManus, S., Killeen, D., Hartnett, Y., Fitzgerald, G., & Murphy, K. C. (2020). Establishing and evaluating a Balint group for fourth-year medical students at an Irish University. Irish journal of psychological medicine, 37(2), 99–105. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2019.28

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Journal

Irish journal of psychological medicine

Volume

37

Issue

2

PubMed ID

ISSN

2051-6967

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