Gonçalves-Pereira, MGonçalves-Pereira, M.Trancas, BrunoLoureiro, JoséPapoila, ALPapoila, A.L.Caldas de Almeida, JMJM, Caldas-de-Almeida2024-12-182024-12-182013-020033-2941PURE: 499715PURE UUID: 3126caf8-edc1-41e5-afdf-0fd91ce8bc58researchoutputwizard: 38827PubMed: 23654028WOS: 000318229200008Scopus: 84875550838ORCID: /0000-0003-1419-1306/work/45732451http://hdl.handle.net/10362/176421http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/17.13.PR0.112.1.73-88Professionalism and empathy are crucial in clinical settings. An association would be expected between empathic attitudes and altruistic motivations for a medical education. However, data is scarce in first-year students, and a previous small-scale study did not fully confirm the hypothesis that person-oriented motives would have a strong relationship to empathy. The present study tested this association in a larger sample. 202 first-year medical students (M age = 19.0 yr., SD = 2.7; 67.3\% women) were assessed cross-sectionally, using the Vaglum and colleagues' indexes on motives for choosing medicine (security/status, person-orientation, and interest in the natural sciences) and the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy for students. There was a weak association between empathy and person-orientation, but the evidence regarding links between empathy and the three motivation scores was low overall. In this Portuguese sample there was not a clear-cut association between empathy and motivations for medical school.62070261engGENDERSELECTIONJEFFERSON SCALESTABILITYEDUCATIONDECLINEPHYSICIAN EMPATHYSPECIALTYVALUESSCHOOLjournal article10.2466/17.13.PR0.112.1.73-88