Who Has Heart? Vicarious Empathy vs. Residency Match

There are two types of empathy—vicarious and cognitive—and having empathy is critical for establishing a successful physician-patient relationship. A physician who establishes an empathic connection with their patients has greater patient compliance and fewer malpractice suits. We hypothesized students who showed greater vicarious empathy would more likely enter specialties with greater patient contact and continuity of care. This study preferentially examined vicarious empathy using the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES). At the start of the medical school senior year, the BEES was given to the 2001–2004 University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences graduating classes. Residency match was also obtained. Specialties were divided into core and non-core categories. The 5 core specialties (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, and psychiatry) exhibit greater degrees of patient contact and continuity of care; the other 18 specialties were considered non-core with lesser degrees of continuity of patient care. The average BEES score for a normal population is 45. The average BEES score for the combined male and female cohort, for specialties with an n ≥ 7 (14 of 23 specialties), ranged from 49.19 to 15.06 for obstetrics/gynecology and orthopedics, respectively. Four of the five core specialties were the top four in the rank-order list, with combined cohort average BEES scores ranging from 49.19 to 37.15 for obstetrics/gynecology and family medicine, respectively. The core specialty with the lowest combined average BEES score, internal medicine (33.81), was ranked sixth out of 14 specialties. Non-core specialties had combined cohort average BEES scores that ranged from 35.68 (anesthesiology) to 15.06 (orthopedics). Data support the hypothesis; core specialties, characterized by continuity of patient care, are chosen most often by men and women medical students who have higher BEES scores.