Abstract
OBJECTIVES: We aimed to explore healthcare students' intercultural sensitivity profiles and their relationship with empathy to develop effective education methods that promote non-discriminatory patient care. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire study, involving a total of 508 international (n= 100) and local (n= 408) healthcare students in Hungary by convenience sampling. The survey included demographics, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. We applied latent profile analysis to identify distinct sensitivity profiles and used multinomial logistic regression to estimate the predictive power of several background variables on profile group membership. RESULTS: A four-profile solution emerged: "Interculturally average" (n= 241), "Interculturally uncertain" (n= 76), "Interculturally sensitive" (n= 132), and "Interculturally refusing" (n= 54). The model (R(2)= 0.123; p= 0.001) revealed that psychology major tended to predict "uncertain" group membership (OR= 0.56, p= 0.08) and higher personal distress was a significant predictor of this group (OR=1.11, p= 0.002). Male gender (OR= 3.03, p= 0.001), medicine major (OR= 5.49, p= 0.01), lower perspective-taking (OR= 0.91, p= 0.007) and higher personal distress (OR= 1.09, p= 0.028) were identified as predictors of "refusing" group membership, compared to the "average" group. CONCLUSIONS: By exploring the ways students experience intercultural situations, a more personalized medical education can be developed with a special focus on vulnerable subgroups. For the "uncertain" group, the focus should be more on developing confidence, and intercultural experiences, whereas in the "refusing" group on strengthening empathy. In general, it can be useful to create mixed-gender, multidisciplinary, and intercultural learning environments.