This study will examine whether a 14-week elective course that uses films and guided discussion on social justice in health care can improve medical students' empathy skills and reduce alexithymia (difficulty recognizing and describing emotions). Approximately 50 volunteer medical students will participate. Students who choose the elective course will form the intervention group, and students who do not take the course will form a comparison group. All participants will complete the same questionnaires/assessments at the beginning and at the end of the semester. The main goal is to compare changes in empathy and alexithymia scores between the two groups.

This is a prospective, nonrandomized controlled pretest-posttest study conducted at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Faculty of Medicine. Participants are volunteer medical students (≥18 years). The intervention group consists of students who enroll in the elective course, and the comparison group consists of students from the same student population who do not enroll during the same period.

Data will be collected at two time points: baseline prior to the start of the elective period (T0) and immediately after the end of the elective period (T1, approximately 14 weeks later). At each time point, participants will complete the study instruments administered in a standardized manner. In the intervention group, reflective journals will also be collected throughout the course period to support qualitative interpretation of findings.

The primary analysis will compare within-group change from T0 to T1 and between-group differences in change scores. Descriptive statistics will summarize participant characteristics. Depending on data distribution, paired tests and independent-group tests (or their nonparametric equivalents) will be used for continuous outcomes. Multivariable models may be used to adjust for baseline differences (e.g., class year) if imbalance is observed. Missing data will be handled using a predefined approach (e.g., complete-case analysis with sensitivity checks). No clinical procedures or medical treatments are involved.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled medical student at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Faculty of Medicine, registered in Year 1, 2, or 3 during the study period.
• Age 18 years or older.
• Provides written/electronic informed consent after being informed about the study.
• For the intervention arm: enrolled in the elective "Film-Based Medical Education and Social Justice" course.
• For the control arm: from the same academic year/cohort during the same period and not enrolled in the elective course.
• Willing and able to complete both baseline (T0) and end-of-course (T1) assessments (has sufficient cognitive/communication ability to complete questionnaires).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Does not provide consent or withdraws consent at any stage.
• Younger than 18 years.
• Does not complete at least one of the two assessments (T0 or T1).
• Leaves critical sections of the questionnaires/assessments largely blank (e.g., substantial missing items on TAS-20 or incomplete scenario responses preventing scoring).
• Duplicate/duplicate submission (more than one form from the same participant for the same assessment).

De-identified individual participant data (IPD) underlying the results reported in publications (e.g., TAS-20 total/subscale scores and scenario-based empathy scores at T0 and T1) will be made available to qualified researchers upon reasonable request. Data will be shared after publication of the primary results, for up to 5 years. Requests will be reviewed by the study team and may require a data use agreement. Shared datasets will be de-identified and will not include direct identifiers; access will be limited to the minimum necessary to protect participant confidentiality.

Outcomes Assessor: Scenario-based empathy responses are scored by independent raters who are blinded to group assignment (elective vs control) and time point (T0 vs T1). Responses are de-identified and labeled with coded participant IDs prior to scoring. Unblinding occurs only after scoring is completed.