[01] Maneesha Raj Kaur Johl, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [02] Goh Chen Yuan, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [03] Nurlaily Sofia Binti Mohd Nazlee, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [04] Sharafana Binti Shamsudin, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [05] Peter Wise Anak Jihek, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia.

Lifelong learning is one of the qualities that is crucial in moulding a competent and all rounded professional which is defined as the continuous process of gaining knowledge as a form of personal and professional development. In this study our aim was to determine the association between empathy and lifelong learning among clinical year medical students in Melaka Manipal Medical College as well as its association with other variables such as self-efficacy and gender and to assess the students’ level of empathy and lifelong learning. This research was an analytical cross-sectional study conducted on 194 students who were given a questionnaire which included 3 main scales: The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire, The Lifelong Learning Questionnaire and the New General Self-Efficacy Scale consisting of 16-items, 14-items and 8-items respectively. The lifelong learning scale was subcategorised into 5 mains domains (goal setting, application of knowledge and skills, self-direction and evaluation, locating information and adaptable learning strategies). In order to analyse the data accordingly, unpaired t test, ANOVA and correlation were used. The results showed that there were significant positive correlations between each domains of lifelong learning and empathy. Another important finding was that the correlation between lifelong learning and self-efficacy also yielded significant positive correlations except adaptable learning strategies, which showed no significant association. Moreover, ethnicities had a significant association with application of knowledge and skills, self-direction and evaluation and total lifelong learning score along with nationality which had a significant association with application of knowledge and skill. Lastly, gender had a significant association with adaptable learning strategies with males having a higher mean score of 0.87. In conclusion, an individual with higher empathy and self-efficacy would have a higher tendency for lifelong learning.

Lifelong Learning, Empathy, Self-efficacy, Medical Students, Clinical Students

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