Student Presenter(s): Alex Hernandez, David Ozga, Imari Faceson
Faculty Mentor: Colleen Kirk
Department: Management & Marketing Studies
School/College: College of Osteopathic Medicine, Long Island

Physicians are faced with emotional dilemmas. Empathy helps physicians relate to and communicate with patients and is often seen as a positive trait. On the other hand, medical students are trained to avoid overt emotional displays during their interactions with patients due to issues of bias and effective decision-making. Indeed, research illustrates that as medical students progress through their training, they become less empathetic and more cynical. The Isolation of Affect research study seeks to understand the evolution of affect in medical trainees as they progress through medical school. Applying themes in psychology and consumer behavior marketing to medical student education yields the central question: is there a change in the emotional reactivity of trainees and is this associated with a change in the attitudes, actions, or thoughts of student doctors toward patients? This study surveyed medical students to analyze their emotional reactions to identical scenarios during pre-clinical education and post-clinical education. Through a mixed-methods analysis, this research investigates changes in the student doctor’s emotional state, and key personality traits including communal narcissism, crying proneness, and empathy, which may be associated with an impact on patient care. The implications of this study may warrant recommendations for the preservation or alteration of the medical student trainee's emotional state. The preliminary results will be presented at SOURCE.