Advancing Measurement of the Sources and Consequences of Burnout in a Comprehensive Cancer Center: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Burnout is endemic among oncology clinicians and impacts quality of care. In order to develop institutional strategies to address burnout, psychometrically sensitive measurement within local cancer organizations is necessary to identify embedded causes of burnout and resulting effects. The authors administered the Mini-Z burnout survey to clinicians and staff (n = 160) at a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. Structural equation modeling was used to examine workplace stressors that predicted burnout, and the pathway between burnout and 2 meaningful quality outcomes was tested: (1) lack of compassion and (2) thoughts of leaving one's job or specialty. Females and advanced practice practitioners had the highest prevalence of burnout. The structural equation model achieved excellent model fit, and indicated that workplace atmosphere, control over workload, values alignment, time for documentation, and team efficiency underlie burnout in this sample. The pathways from burnout to lack of compassion and to thoughts of leaving one's job were significant.