Acute empathy decline among resident physician trainees on a hematology-oncology ward: an exploratory analysis of house staff empathy, distress, and patient death exposure

Psycho-oncology
Daniel C McFarlandAndrew Roth

Abstract

A reason for empathy decline during medical training has not been fully elucidated. Empathy may decrease acutely during an inpatient hematology-oncology rotation because of the acuity of death exposures. This study aimed to explore physician trainee empathy, distress, death exposures, and their attributed meaning for the trainee. Internal medicine interns and residents at a single academic center were evaluated before and after hematology-oncology ward rotations using Interpersonal Reactivity Index for empathy, previously cited reasons for empathy decline, Impact of Event Scale-Revised for distress, death exposures (no. of dying patients cared for) and attributed sense of meaning (yes/no) (post-rotation). Fifty-six trainees completed both pre-rotation and post-rotation questionnaires (58% response). Empathy averaged 58.9 (SD 12.0) before and 56.8 (SD 11.1) after the rotation (2.1 point decrease) (p = 0.018). Distress was elevated but did not change significantly during the rotation. Residents cared for 4.28 dying patients. Seventy-three percent reported that death was the most stressful event during the rotation, yet 68% reported that they derived a sense of meaning from caring for dying patients. Empathy and distress scales we...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jun 5, 2019·Journal of Cancer Education : the Official Journal of the American Association for Cancer Education·Loni Belyea, Jared D Acoba
Nov 30, 2018·The American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care·Dallas Michelle Ducar, Tim Cunningham
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May 15, 2021·Journal of Cancer Education : the Official Journal of the American Association for Cancer Education·Jennifer M KingMitchell Goldman
Aug 25, 2021·Nursing Ethics·Anessa M FoxwellConnie M Ulrich

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