Incidence of Burnout Among Medical Dosimetrists in Portugal

Abstract

Burnout is a pathologic response to chronic occupational stress resulting from the lack of coping strategies that assist the individual to comply with the working demands. Burnout is a cause of serious consequences for both the individual and the organization. Given the lack of studies on the incidence of this disease in medical dosimetrists in Portugal, this study aims to compensate for this gap. The method used for data collection was a survey divided into three parts. The first part was designed to evaluate the sociodemographic and professional conditions of the sample. The second part of the survey was based on the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) and the third part was based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The survey was distributed to all medical dosimetrists working in public and private institutions in Portugal which gave the authorization to participate in this study. We evaluated 17 medical dosimetrists (physicists and radiation therapists), engaged in six Portuguese public and private institutions. Our results reveal an incidence of burnout between 35.3% (CBI) and 88.2% (MBI), manifested by worrying results on the sub-scales of personal burnout, work-related burnout, emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. For this study, the questionnaires were adapted and tested, having been considered valid for the Portuguese population, however, more detailed formal validation should be carried out in future studies.