Background: This study aims to compare the burnout level and perceptions of burnout between oncology physicians and nurses, and to explore the relationship between these perceptions and the burnout level in physicians and nurses separately.
Methods: The whole crew of the Peking University Cancer Hospital was invited to participate in the survey. Maslach Burnout Scale Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) was used. Ten additional items on the perceptions of burnout were added to assess concerns on burnout, perceptions on the negative impact of burnout and perceptions on how to prevent burnout.
Results: In total, 862 (71%) oncology clinicians completed the questionnaire, including 285 physicians (33%) and 577 (67%) nurses. The proportion of the high risk of low personal accomplishment (PA) is higher in nurses than in physicians (39.3% V.S. 29.8%, p = 0.007). Most clinicians (72.2% of physicians, 82.4% of nurses) would like to participant in interventions to prevent burnout, but only a few of them (5.7% of physicians, 4.1% of nurses) had an opportunity to participate in. Both physicians (91.9%) and nurses (89.8%) rated increasing paid vacation as the most priority strategy to prevent burnout. The job-hopping intention is correlated to a high level of burnout in both physicians and nurses.
Conclusions: The burnout level did not differ significantly between oncology nurses and physicians, except the low PA level. There was a big gap between their needs for burnout interventions and the resources they really had. The clinicians with a job-hopping intention should be paid attention to their burnout.
Keywords: Psycho-Oncology; burnout; cancer; nurse; oncology; perception; physician.
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.