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Article History

Received: 19 October 2025

Accepted: 16 January 2026

First Online: 29 January 2026

Declarations

:

: This study conformed to the ethical guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. Permission to carry out the study was obtained from the heads of departments at all the departments included in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science at NTNU. Students were informed about the purpose and procedure of the study, and the students provided informed consent by participating in the survey. An introductory text to the survey explained that the collected data would be anonymized and solely used for research purposes. Permission was obtained from the developer of the State Empathy Scale. This study did not require approval from a Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics (REK), as defined by the Norwegian Health Research Act. The project does not constitute medical or health research and does not involve health-related data, human biological material, og clinical interventions. Consequently, ethics approval was deemed unnecessary under national regulations. The study was, however, reviewed and approved by Sikt (Data Protection Services for Research, project number 402226). The electronic forms were set up with anonymous submissions, and the data was accessible only to the research team.

: All authors approved the manuscript and gave their consent to submission and publication. The questionnaire used in this study was anonymous.

: The authors declare no competing interests.