Original Research Reports Are Doctors Who Have Been Ill More Compassionate? Attitudes of Resident Physicians Regarding Personal Health Issues and the Expression of Compassion in Clinical Care Laura Weiss Roberts, M.D., M.A., Teddy D. Warner, Ph.D., Christine Moutier, M.D., Cynthia M. A. Geppert, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., Katherine A. Green Hammond, Ph.D. Background: Compassion is an attribute central to pro- fessionalism and modern clinical care, yet little is known about how compassion is acquired and preserved in medical training. We sought to understand whether personal illness experiences are thought by residents to foster compassion. Methods: The authors surveyed 155 (71% response rate) second- and third-year residents at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine re- garding their views of the relationship of personal life experience with illness to compassion and empathy for patients. Results: Residents believe that experience with personal health issues enhances physician com- passion for patients. Residents who report more per- sonal health concerns, such as physical or mental health problems and family health problems, endorse the connection between direct experience with illness and empathy. Conclusion: Health care trainees’ own illness experiences may increase compassionate patient care practices and foster empathy. (Psychosomatics 2011; 52:367–374) C ompassion is the capacity to appreciate deeply the perspective of another person, and a compassionate physician is one who is well attuned to the experience of patients and responds in a manner that brings solace. 1 Medical educators see compassion as key to many objec- tives of contemporary medical training, including im- proved communication skills, increased respect for the dignity and autonomy of patients, enhanced cultural and spiritual sensitivity, and a physician-patient partnership in medical decision-making. 2–4 Empirical studies that ex- plore how compassion may be nurtured, expressed, im- parted, and evaluated in medical training have, to date, been quite limited. 5–8 Compassion is a virtue that many believe is threatened across the course of medical training. 9,10 Indeed, a clear and disconcerting finding in the literature is the erosion of compassion and emergence of cynicism among early ca- reer physicians. In a longitudinal cohort study over the 3 years of internal medicine residency training, Bellini et al. 11 measured empathic attitudes expressed by 61 resi- dents at six points in their training. A steady decline in empathic concern was observed, and this decrement in empathy endured beyond graduation. Similar results have been obtained in other studies. 12–15 Much less is known about factors or experiences fos- tering compassion. One study of the levels of empathy in Received October 30, 2010; revised January 7, 2011; accepted January 10, 2011. From Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA (LWR); Dept. of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquer- que, NM (TDW); School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (CM); Dept. of Psychiatry, Veterans Administration Medical Center, School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albu- querque, NM (CMAG); and Ecosystem Modeling, Albuquerque, NM (KAGH). Send correspondence and reprint requests to Laura W. Rob- erts, M.D., M.A., Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stan- ford University, 401 Quarry Road, Room 3215, Stanford, CA 94305- 5717. e-mail: RobertsL@stanford.edu © 2011 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Psychosomatics 2011:52:367–374 © 2011 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 367 Psychosomatics 52:4, July-August 2011 www.psychosomaticsjournal.org