Do medical residents with rural upbringing show less decline in empathy during training? A report from a rural family medicine residency

PurPose: Our focus in this study was to determine if demographic variables, including rural upbringing, showed any association with a measure of empathy among family medicine residents at a rural site. Methods: We surveyed 40 residents annually using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) from 2016 to 2020 and compared scores between residents with rural vs. urban hometowns. The response rate was 98/99 (99%) of completed survey opportunities. Findings: There was no significant difference in JSE scores of rural vs. urban residents at baseline, and both groups showed a decline after the PG-1 year. However, the ruralraised residents showed a significantly different rebound after the PG-2 and PG-3 years, with the urban-raised residents showing a slight continuing decline (p=.023 and p=.033). ConClusion: These preliminary findings among family medicine residents at a rural site suggest that residents with rural backgrounds might regain empathy better than residents with urban backgrounds during their training. Further study should validate our findings and address possible explanations, including the importance of cultural concordance with the patient population served. This and other hypotheses will be explored in further studies with focus groups and other contemporaneous measures.