“Burnout in Medical Oncology Fellows: a Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study in Brazilian Institutions”

Abstract

Burnout syndrome is a common occurrence among oncologists. Doctors enrolled in residency programs in clinical oncology are exposed to similar risk factors; however, few data are available in this population. This study assessed the occurrence of burnout and associated factors among first-year residents at Brazilian institutions. The present prospective, multicenter, cohort study was conducted with doctors enrolled in residency programs in clinical oncology at Brazilian institutions affiliated with the public health system. The participants answered a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Lipp's Stress Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), upon admission to the program and 6 and 12 months later. Of 37 eligible residency programs in 2009, 11 (30.6 %) agreed to participate in the study. Fifty-four residents, representing 100 % of new admissions to the participating institutions, were included. Most of the participants met the criteria for severe burnout upon admission to the residency programs (emotional exhaustion in 49.0 % and depersonalization in 64.7 %). The scores on MBI domains emotional exhaustion and depersonalization increased significantly (p < 0.01) during the first year of residency, and the prevalence of burnout increased to 88 % at the end of that first year. The present study found a high prevalence of burnout among doctors enrolled in residency programs in clinical oncology at Brazilian institutions. A large fraction of the participants met the criteria for burnout syndrome upon admission to the program, which suggests that the problem began during the course of the previous residency program in internal medicine.

Factors associated with burnout syndrome in medical residents of a university hospital

“…However, using as a criterion the presence of the three dimensions of the syndrome, this value drops to less than 36%. 15 Our study demonstrated a prevalence of 27.9% of burnout syndrome in HC-UFPE residents, which is compatible with the average of other studies conducted in Brazil. As for Brazilian studies including physicians after completion of residency, the prevalence of burnout is lower.…”

“…This prevalence was much lower in other studies with physicians living in Brazil, ranging from 17.6 to 33.3%. 6,9,15 The exception was a study by Fabichak that found 70.8% of the residents with low level of professional achievement.…”

Burnout in oncologists and associated factors: A systematic literature review and meta‐analysis

“…However, the moderate quality rating of Probst et al () and lack of statistical information from Elit et al, () suggests further replication of the findings are needed to assist generalisability. Seven of the studies (Banerjee et al, ; Blanchard et al, ; Cubero et al, ; Leung & Rioseco, ; Ramey et al, ; Roth et al, ; Shanafelt, Gradishar, Kosty, Satele, et al, ) found hours worked/excessive workload, delivery demands, a lack of free time, amount of clinical time or inadequate work‐life balance were associated with higher levels of burnout. These seven studies have quality ratings ranging from moderate to high (four as high), four had large sample sizes of N = >400, and data covers, North and South America, Europe, and Australasia, which gives confidence in the generalisability of the findings.…”

Moral distress and its contribution to the development of burnout syndrome among critical care providers

“…The MBI is a 22-item questionnaire that has shown to be reproducible and valid [15]. The MBI evaluates three domains of burnout: The emotional exhaustion subscale (nine items) assesses feelings of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by work; the depersonalization subscale (five items) measures an unfeeling and impersonal response toward recipients of one’s service, care or treatment; the personal accomplishment subscale (eight items) assesses feelings of competence and successful achievement in one’s work with people.…”