Whippen D A, Canellos G P
Editorial Office of Journal of Clinical Oncology, Boston, MA 02115.
J Clin Oncol. 1991 Oct;9(10):1916-20. doi: 10.1200/JCO.1991.9.10.1916.
Burnout, the end result of stress, can occur in any profession. We set out to determine the extent of burnout among a representative group of American oncologists. A questionnaire with 12 specific points was designed and prepared by the authors. It was mailed to 1,000 randomly selected physician subscribers to the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Five hundred ninety-eight completed surveys (60%) were returned before the cut-off date and included in the analysis. Overall, 56% of the respondents reported experiencing burnout in their professional life. No significance was found between the incidence of burnout and specialty within oncology, year medical training ended, or practice location. Significance was found, however, between type of practice and the incidence of burnout; institution- or university-based oncologists reported a lower incidence of burnout (47%) versus all other types of practice (66% burnout rate for oncology plus internal medicine, 63% for private adult oncology only, 39% for pediatric oncologists [there were too few pediatric oncologists for this rate to be significant], and 64% for others; P = .0003). Frustration or a sense of failure was the most frequently chosen (56%) description of burnout, and insufficient personal and/or vacation time was the most frequent reason (57%) chosen to explain the existence of burnout. To alleviate burnout, the majority (69%) of respondents indicated the need for more vacation or personal time. Administering palliative or terminal care, reimbursement issues, and a heavy work load were identified as contributing factors to burnout. Given the high response to the questionnaire and a 56% incidence of burnout in the surveyed population, it is concluded that further research on this issue is required.
职业倦怠是压力的最终结果，可能发生在任何职业中。我们着手确定一组具有代表性的美国肿瘤学家的职业倦怠程度。作者设计并准备了一份包含12个具体要点的问卷。该问卷被邮寄给随机选择的1000名《临床肿瘤学杂志》的医生订阅者。在截止日期前，共收到598份完成的调查问卷（60%），并纳入分析。总体而言，56%的受访者表示在其职业生涯中经历过职业倦怠。在肿瘤学内部，职业倦怠的发生率与专业、医学培训结束年份或执业地点之间未发现显著差异。然而，在执业类型与职业倦怠发生率之间发现了显著差异；机构或大学附属的肿瘤学家报告的职业倦怠发生率较低（47%），而其他所有类型的执业者的职业倦怠发生率分别为：肿瘤学与内科联合执业者为66%，仅成人私人肿瘤学执业者为63%，儿科肿瘤学家为39%（儿科肿瘤学家数量过少，该比例无统计学意义），其他为64%；P = 0.0003）。挫折感或失败感是对职业倦怠最常选择的描述（56%），个人时间和/或假期不足是解释职业倦怠存在的最常见原因（57%）。为缓解职业倦怠，大多数受访者（69%）表示需要更多假期或个人时间。提供姑息治疗或终末期护理、报销问题以及繁重的工作量被确定为职业倦怠的促成因素。鉴于对问卷的高回复率以及被调查人群中56%的职业倦怠发生率，得出结论认为需要对此问题进行进一步研究。
