Kleiner Sibyl, Wallace Jean E
Department of Sociology, The University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. N.W, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2017 Sep 11;17(1):639. doi: 10.1186/s12913-017-2581-9.
Oncologists are at high risk of poor mental health. Prior research has focused on burnout, and has identified heavy workload as a key predictor. Compassion fatigue among physicians has generally received less attention, although medical specialties such as oncology may be especially at risk of compassion fatigue. We contribute to research by identifying predictors of both burnout and compassion fatigue among oncologists. In doing so, we distinguish between quantitative workload (e.g., work hours) and subjective work pressure, and test whether work-family conflict mediates the relationships between work pressure and burnout or compassion fatigue.
In a cross-sectional study, oncologists from across Canada (n = 312) completed questionnaires assessing burnout, compassion fatigue, workload, time pressure at work, work-family conflict, and other personal, family, and occupational characteristics. Analyses use Ordinary Least Squares regression.
Subjective time pressure at work is a key predictor of both burnout and compassion fatigue. Our results also show that work-family conflict fully mediates these relationships. Overall, the models explain more of the variation in burnout as compared to compassion fatigue.
Our study highlights the need to consider oncologists' subjective time pressure, in addition to quantitative workload, in interventions to improve mental health. The findings also highlight a need to better understand additional predictors of compassion fatigue.
肿瘤学家心理健康状况不佳的风险很高。先前的研究主要集中在职业倦怠方面，并将繁重的工作量确定为一个关键预测因素。医生的同情疲劳总体上受到的关注较少，尽管肿瘤学等医学专业可能尤其面临同情疲劳的风险。我们通过确定肿瘤学家职业倦怠和同情疲劳的预测因素来推动该领域的研究。在此过程中，我们区分了定量工作量（如工作时长）和主观工作压力，并测试工作-家庭冲突是否在工作压力与职业倦怠或同情疲劳之间起中介作用。
在一项横断面研究中，来自加拿大各地的312名肿瘤学家完成了问卷调查，评估职业倦怠、同情疲劳、工作量、工作时的时间压力、工作-家庭冲突以及其他个人、家庭和职业特征。分析采用普通最小二乘法回归。
工作中的主观时间压力是职业倦怠和同情疲劳的关键预测因素。我们的结果还表明，工作-家庭冲突完全中介了这些关系。总体而言，与同情疲劳相比，这些模型能解释职业倦怠中更多的变异。
我们的研究强调，在改善心理健康的干预措施中，除了定量工作量外，还需要考虑肿瘤学家的主观时间压力。研究结果还凸显了更好地了解同情疲劳的其他预测因素的必要性。
