Burnout among Portuguese oncology healthcare providers – Differences between pediatric an adult teams

Abstract

IntroductionBurnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment, resulting from the inability to cope with chronic job stress. The literature suggests that staffs working in adult oncology are at risk of burnout. At the same time, research found that pediatric staff experiences a different set of stressors when compared with colleagues working in adult oncology. However, no studies were identified which directly compared prevalence and sources of Burn-out on pediatric and adult oncology staff.ObjectivesTo compare the differences on prevalence and sources of burnout between pediatric and adult oncology multidisciplinary teams.MethodsPediatric and adult oncology professionals, including medical and nursing from a Portuguese oncology center completed the Portuguese version of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Data was analyzed using SPSS.ResultsSince the study is currently ongoing the authors will only be able to provide final results and conclusions by the time of submission of our work presentation, in March 2016. However, according to the literature available, we are expecting to found symptoms of Burnout in the superior limit of normality, with differences in the major sources of stress between adult and pediatric professionals.ConclusionThe differences in the challenges experienced by adult and pediatric teams highlight the importance of adequate prevention strategies to specific needs of each unit. Further investigation of stress across a wider range of professional disciplines is required in order to explore this gap.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.