A Residency Professional Identity Curriculum and a Longitudinal Measure of Empathy

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Empathy measures were used before and after implementation of a structured professional identity curriculum to determine the effect among a group of family medicine residents. METHODS The Jefferson Scale of Empathy was completed by 18 residents at all three years of training before, immediately after a six month professional identity curriculum intervention, and six months after the curriculum was completed. The curriculum included one hour luncheon sessions on concepts of profession, burnout, and cynicism as well as thoughtful use of electronic medical records, prevention and management of burnout, mindfulness techniques and reflective writing and drawing. The Baptist Health Madisonville IRB approved the protocol as exempt and the authors have no conflicts of interests. RESULTS Similar to previous publications, a decline in empathy across the academic year was found, with a significant decline six months after the end of the curriculum. Residents who attended more sessions showed a non-significant smaller decline, and there were large standard deviations among each training level with some individual residents showing little change across the year. Evaluations of the curriculum were largely positive. CONCLUSIONS This professional identity curriculum in this group of residents may have temporarily mitigated the decline in measured empathy that has been described among residents. Results support some aspects of empathy as a trait in some residents rather than a state that is amenable to a training effect. Further study in this residency including longitudinal empathy measurements and focus groups is ongoing. Other programs’ experience with these issues is needed to add to sample size and diversity of training environments to discern which changes are significant and generalizable.