The Association Between Well-Being and Empathy in Medical Residents: A Cross-Sectional Survey.
J Integr Complement Med
; 30(7): 691-697, 2024 Jul.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38416862
ABSTRACT
Objective:
To evaluate the extent to which personal well-being may be associated with empathy, while controlling for potential confounders. Settings/Location Residency programs throughout the United States.Subjects:
A total of 407 medical residents from residencies including general medicine, surgery, specialized and diagnostic medicine participated in this study. OutcomeMeasures:
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.Results:
Well-being was found to be positively correlated with empathy when adjusted for possible confounders (p < 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 (p < 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.Conclusions:
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.Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Empathy
/
Internship and Residency
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Year:
2024
Type:
Article