ArticlePhysics and imaging in radiation oncology2020
Professional quality of life and burnout among medical physicists working in radiation oncology: The role of alexithymia and empathy.
Article in Physics and imaging in radiation oncology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Relationship between empathy and quality of work life in oncology nurses: the mediating role of resilience.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- The burden of burnout: Understanding its prevalence and organizational drivers in medical physics.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2025Article
- Towards better understanding of factors contributing to medical physicist well-being in academic medical centers: A systems-analysis approach.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2025Article
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- ESTRO guidelines for developing questionnaires in survey-based radiation oncology research.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2025Review
- Exposure to Traumatic Events at Work, Post-Traumatic Symptoms, and Professional Quality of Life among Italian Midwives: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The price of pressure: nationwide survey on lifestyle disturbances, occupational burnout and compromised perceived-competency among radiology residents in China.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Current status of the educational environment to acquire and maintain the professional skills of radiotherapy technology and medical physics specialists in Japan: a nationwide survey.Radiological physics and technology · 2023Article
- Factors associated with medical radiation and imaging professionals' willingness to work during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.Journal of medical imaging and radiation sciences · 2023Article
- Professional quality of life among Spanish veterinarians.Veterinary record open · 2022Article
- An impact model to understand and improve work-life balance in early-career researchers in radiation oncology.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2022Article
- A qualitative investigation of resilience and well-being among medical physics residents.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2022Article
- Professional practice changes in radiotherapy physics during the COVID-19 pandemic.Physics and imaging in radiation oncology · 2021Article
- Empathy and COVID-19: Study in Professionals and Students of the Social Health Field in Ecuador.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The Role of Interoceptive Sensibility and Emotional Conceptualization for the Experience of Emotions.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Effects of Occupational Radiation Exposure on Job Stress and Job Burnout of Medical Staff in Xinjiang, China: A Cross-Sectional Study.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2020Article
- The role of alexithymia and empathy on radiation therapists' professional quality of life.Technical innovations & patient support in radiation oncology · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 12 institutions in 10 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
background and purposeThe professional quality of life of radiation oncology professionals can be influenced by different contributing factors, including personality traits. Alexithymia involves deficits in emotion processing and awareness. Empathy is the ability to understand another's 'state of mind/emotion'. We investigated professional quality of life, including burnout, in radiation oncology, exploring the role of alexithymia and empathy and targeting the population of medical physicists (MPs), since this professional category is usually underrepresented in surveys exploring professional well-being in radiation oncology and MPs may experience professional distress given the increasing complexity of multimodal cancer care. MATERIAL AND
methodsAn online survey was addressed to ESTRO members. Participants filled out three questionnaires to evaluate alexithymia, empathy and professional quality of life: a) Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20); b) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI); c) Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQoL). Professional quality of life as per ProQoL was considered as dependent variable. The three domains of the ProQoL, namely compassion satisfaction (CS), secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout were correlated with alexithymia (as per TAS-20) and empathy (as per IRI with three subcategories: empathic concern, perspective taking and personal distress) and demographic/professional characteristics as independent variables. Generalized linear modeling was used. Significant covariates on univariate linear regression analysis were included in the multivariate linear regression model.
resultsA total of 308 medical physicists completed all questionnaires. Alexithymia as per TAS-20 was correlated to decreased CS (
conclusionsAlexithymic personality trait increased the likelihood to develop burnout, with less professional satisfaction amongst MPs working in radiation oncology. Empathy results in higher professional fulfilment. These results may be used to benchmark preventing strategies, including peer support, debriefing sessions, leadership initiatives and work-load limitation strategies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.