INTRODUCTION
Burnout is a psychological syndrome that develops as a prolonged response to job-related stressors consisting of 3 key dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment.1 Causes and consequences of burnout are being increasingly recognized as an important social issue, especially in healthcare settings.2 A recent National Academy of Medicine publication reported that burnout among healthcare professionals negatively impacts healthcare quality and safety, decreases patient satisfaction, increases staff turnover, reduces work effort, and has negative financial implications for healthcare organizations.3
Roth et al. reported burnout in 38% of pediatric oncologists in the US, Canada, and 11 other countries.4 A meta-analysis of burnout rates among oncology nurses showed 30%, 15%, and 35% having high emotional exhaustion levels, high depersonalization levels, and reduced personal accomplishment levels, respectively.5Thus, it is crucial to identify contributing (or causative) workplace factors to develop effective interventions to prevent or reduce burnout among clinicians in oncology settings.6
Halbesleben and Rathert observed that in physicians, higher depersonalization levels were associated with lower patient satisfaction and increased hospitalization recovery time,7 and Shanafelt and colleagues found that physicians with burnout were more likely to spend less time caring for patients.8Surgeons with higher burnout levels had higher rates of self-reported medical errors;9 emergency room physicians with higher burnout scores reported higher rates of suboptimal patient care (e.g., not treating a patient’s pain in a timely manner);10
Nurse burnout also negatively impacts patient care. Higher patient urinary tract infection and surgical site infection rates have been associated with burnout in nurses.11 Emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment among nurses was negatively associated with patient satisfaction,12 and higher burnout levels among nurses were associated with lower peer-rated quality of care.13
The impact of job demands and patient safety event (PSE) involvement on burnout have been previously studied among healthcare workers but not specifically in a multidisciplinary cohort of pediatric hematology/oncology clinicians.14 The study objectives were to: (1) assess the prevalence of burnout among inpatient and ambulatory care nurses, physicians (MDs) and advanced practice providers (APPs); (2) compare the differences in job demands, PSE involvement, and burnout rates across groups; and (3) determine the impact of job demands and PSE involvement on levels of burnout.