Liu Xiaoyu, Zhang Jennifer, Xie Fagen, Ruan Dan, Qi X Sharon, Shen Zhilei L, Sehgal Varun, Yu Amy S, Goetsch Steve
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2025 Sep;26(9):e70233. doi: 10.1002/acm2.70233.
This study aims to investigate medical physicist job status during the COVID-19 pandemic in California and collect community feedback on strategies to alleviate job burnout and stress to improve overall work-life balance.
The online survey platform SurveyMonkey was used to generate a 14-question survey, enabling data collection from a large pool of respondents. The 14 survey questions were designed to assess respondent demographics, measuring eight different variables related to medical physicist job status, and collecting feedback regarding burnout and job stress. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Southern California Chapter Education Committee emailed out the survey link to all AAPM Southern California and Northern California chapter members, requesting that each person provide a single response. All responses were anonymized, and data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
At the end of a 6-week collection period (January 5, 2022, to February 18, 2022), a total of 97 responses (28.7%) were collected out of 338 invitations. Our analysis results show that "Burnout Level" is strongly and positively correlated with "Leaving Job" (Correlation Coefficient CC = 0.66, p < 0.05), "Work Environment" (CC = 0.54, p < 0.05), and "Stress Level" (CC = 0.70, p < 0.05); it is moderately and negatively correlated with "Salary Satisfaction" (CC = -0.49, p < 0.05) and "Job Satisfaction" (CC = -0.48, p < 0.05). Qualitative results revealed that the seven most common recommendation categories to alleviate job burnout and stress from respondents were: adequate staffing, culture of recognition, salary increase, team building, structure and organization, flexibility of remote working, and physicist involvement in decision-making.
This study provides an overview of the job status of California-based medical physicists during the COVID-19 pandemic, offers valuable insights into managing job-related stress and burnout. These findings underscore the need for tailored interventions and policy considerations to alleviate burnout, enhance job satisfaction.
本研究旨在调查加利福尼亚州在新冠疫情期间医学物理师的工作状况，并收集社区对减轻职业倦怠和压力以改善整体工作与生活平衡策略的反馈。
使用在线调查平台SurveyMonkey生成一份包含14个问题的调查问卷，以便从大量受访者中收集数据。这14个调查问题旨在评估受访者的人口统计学特征，测量与医学物理师工作状况相关的八个不同变量，并收集有关职业倦怠和工作压力的反馈。美国医学物理师协会（AAPM）南加州分会教育委员会将调查问卷链接通过电子邮件发送给所有AAPM南加州和北加州分会成员，要求每人提供一份回答。所有回答均进行了匿名处理，并使用定性和定量方法对数据进行了分析。
在为期6周的收集期结束时（2022年1月5日至2022年2月18日），在338份邀请中，共收集到97份回复（28.7%）。我们的分析结果表明，“职业倦怠程度”与“离职意向”（相关系数CC = 0.66，p < 0.05）、“工作环境”（CC = 0.54，p < 0.05）和“压力水平”（CC = 0.70，p < 0.05）呈强正相关；与“薪资满意度”（CC = -0.49，p < 0.05）和“工作满意度”（CC = -0.48，p < 0.05）呈中度负相关。定性结果显示，受访者提出减轻职业倦怠和压力的七个最常见建议类别为：充足的人员配备、认可文化、薪资增长、团队建设、结构与组织、远程工作灵活性以及物理师参与决策。
本研究概述了加利福尼亚州医学物理师在新冠疫情期间的工作状况，为管理与工作相关的压力和职业倦怠提供了有价值见解。这些发现强调了需要采取针对性干预措施和政策考量来减轻职业倦怠，提高工作满意度。
