The Association Between Well-Being and Empathy in Medical Residents: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Overview

Journal J Integr Complement Med

Specialty Rehabilitation Medicine

Date 2024 Feb 28

PMID 38416862

Authors

Theodora L Swenson

Reza Ehsanian

Richard T Tran

Timothy R Petersen

David J Kennedy

Megan Roche

Marily Oppezzo

Douglas L Noordsy

Michael Fredericson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

To evaluate the extent to which personal well-being may be associated with empathy, while controlling for potential confounders. Residency programs throughout the United States. A total of 407 medical residents from residencies including general medicine, surgery, specialized and diagnostic medicine participated in this study. Well-being was measured using the modified existential well-being subscale of the spiritual well-being scale. Empathy was measured using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Well-being was found to be positively correlated with empathy when adjusted for possible confounders ( < 0.001). In addition to well-being, other factors noted to be statistically significant contributors to higher empathy scores while controlling for the others included age, gender, year in residency, specialty, and work-hours ( < 0.05 for each). After controlling for these factors, a resident's year in residency was not found to be a statistically significant contributor to empathy score. In this study, well-being was associated with empathy in medical and surgical residents. Empathy is a fundamental component of physician competency, and its development is an essential aspect of medical training. These findings suggest that efforts to increase well-being may promote empathy among medical residents.

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