Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Mar 1;32(7):678-86.
doi: 10.1200/JCO.2013.51.8480. Epub 2014 Jan 27.

Burnout and career satisfaction among US oncologists

Tait D Shanafelt  1 , William J Gradishar, Michael Kosty, Daniel Satele, Helen Chew, Leora Horn, Ben Clark, Amy E Hanley, Quyen Chu, John Pippen, Jeff Sloan, Marilyn Raymond
Affiliations

Burnout and career satisfaction among US oncologists

Tait D Shanafelt et al. J Clin Oncol. .

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the personal and professional characteristics associated with career satisfaction and burnout among US oncologists.

Methods: Between October 2012 and March 2013, the American Society of Clinical Oncology conducted a survey of US oncologists evaluating burnout and career satisfaction. The survey sample included equal numbers of men and women and represented all career stages.

Results: Of 2,998 oncologists contacted, 1,490 (49.7%) returned surveys (median age of respondents, 52 years; 49.6% women). Among the 1,117 oncologists (37.3% of overall sample) who completed full-length surveys, 377 (33.8%) were in academic practice (AP) and 482 (43.2%) in private practice (PP), with the remainder in other settings. Oncologists worked an average of 57.6 hours per week (AP, 58.6 hours per week; PP, 62.9 hours per week) and saw a mean of 52 outpatients per week. Overall, 484 oncologists (44.7%) were burned out on the emotional exhaustion and/or depersonalization domain of Maslach Burnout Inventory (AP, 45.9%; PP, 50.5%; P = .18). Hours per week devoted to direct patient care was the dominant professional predictor of burnout for both PP and AP oncologists on univariable and multivariable analyses. Although a majority of oncologists were satisfied with their career (82.5%) and specialty (80.4%) choices, both measures of career satisfaction were lower for those in PP relative to AP (all P < .006).

Conclusion: Overall career satisfaction is high among US oncologists, albeit lower for those in PP relative to AP. Burnout rates among oncologists seem similar to those described in recent studies of US physicians in general. Those oncologists who devote the greatest amount of their professional time to patient care seem to be at greatest risk for burnout.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
Hours and effort devoted to clinical care and patients seen per week. The relationship between the number of outpatients seen per week (y-axis) and (A) percentage of effort devoted to clinical care or (B) hours spent seeing patients each week on x-axis.
Fig 2.
Fig 2.
Patient care activity and burnout. The relationship between patient care hours devoted to patient care and burnout among the 985 oncologists who completed the full-length survey and provided information on both hours and burnout is shown. The number of hours spent seeing patients each week is shown on the x-axis. Mean burnout score in the (A) emotional exhaustion (EE) and (B) depersonalization (DP) domains is shown in the y-axis. Horizontal lines indicate the standardized thresholds to categorize scores for physicians as low, intermediate, or high degree of burnout according to the Maslach Burnout Inventory.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Shanafelt T, Dyrbye L. Oncologist burnout: Causes, consequences, and responses. J Clin Oncol. 2012;30:1235–1241. - PubMed
    1. Shanafelt T, Adjei A, Meyskens FL. When your favorite patient relapses: Physician grief and well-being in the practice of oncology. J Clin Oncol. 2003;21:2616–2619. - PubMed
    1. Ramirez AJ, Graham J, Richards MA, et al. Burnout and psychiatric disorder among cancer clinicians. Br J Cancer. 1995;71:1263–1269. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Maslach C, Jackson S, Leiter M. Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual (ed 3) Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press; 1996.
    1. Shanafelt T, Sloan J, Habermann T. The well-being of physicians. Am J Med I. 2003;114:513–517. - PubMed

Publication types