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Professional quality of life and burnout amongst radiation oncologists:The impact of alexithymia and empathy

Background and purpose: Different factors may influence the professional quality of life of oncology professionals. Among them, personality traits, as alexithymia and empathy, are underinvestigated. Alexithymia is about deficits in emotion processing and awareness. Empathy is the ability to understand another's 'state of mind'/emotion. The PROject on BurnOut in RadiatioN Oncology (PRO BONO) assesses professional quality of life, including burnout, in the field of radiation oncology and investigates alexithymia and empathy as contributing factors. Material and methods: An online survey was conducted amongst ESTRO members. Participants completed 3 validated questionnaires for alexithymia, empathy and professional quality of life: (a) Toronto Alexithymia Scale; (b) Interpersonal Reactivity Index; (c) Professional Quality of Life Scale. The present analysis, focusing on radiation/clinical oncologists, evaluates Compassion Satisfaction (CS), Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) and Burnout and correlates them with alexithymia and empathy (empathic concern, perspective taking and personal distress) with generalized linear modeling. Significant covariates on univariate linear regression analysis were included in the multivariate linear regression model. Results: A total of 825 radiation oncologists completed all questionnaires. A higher level of alexithymia was associated to decreased CS (beta:-0.101; SE: 0.018; p <0.001), increased STS (beta: 0.228; SE: 0.018; p <0.001) and burnout (beta: 0.177; SE: 0.016; p <0.001). A higher empathic concern was significantly associated to increased CS (beta: 0.1.287; SE: 0.305; p = 0.001), STS (beta: 0.114; SE: 0.296; p <0.001), with no effect on burnout. Personal distress was associated to decreased CS (beta:-1.423; SE: 0.275; p <0.001), increased STS (beta: 1.871; SE: 0.283; p <0.001) and burnout (beta: 1.504; SE: 0.245; p <0.001). Conclusions: Alexithymic personality trait increased burnout risk, with less professional satisfaction. Empathic concern was associated to increased stress, without leading to burnout, resulting in higher professional fulfillment. These results may be used to benchmark preventing strategies, such as work-hour restrictions, peer support, debriefing sessions, and leadership initiatives for professionals at risk. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Radiotherapy and Oncology 147 (2020) 162-16

The role of alexithymia and empathy on radiation therapists’ professional quality of life

Background and purpose: Physical and mental well-being are crucial for oncology professionals as they affect performance at work. Personality traits, as alexithymia and empathy, may influence professional quality of life. Alexithymia involves diminished skills in emotion processing and awareness. Empathy is pertinent to the ability to understand another's ‘state of mind/emotion’. The PROject on Burn-Out in RadiatioN Oncology (PRO BONO) investigates professional quality of life amongst radiation oncology professionals, exploring the role of alexithymia and empathy. The present study reports on data pertinent to radiation therapists (RTTs). Material and methods: An online survey targeted ESTRO members. Participants were asked to fill out 3 questionnaires for 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). The present analysis focuses on RTTS to evaluate compassion satisfaction (CS), secondary traumatic stress (STS) and Burnout and their correlation with alexithymia and empathy, using generalized linear modeling. Covariates found significant at univariate linear regression analysis were included in the multivariate linear regression model. Results: A total of 399 RTTs completed all questionnaires. The final model for the burnout scale of ProQoL found, as significal predictors, the TAS-20 total score (β = 0.46, p < 0 0.001), and the individual's perception of being valued by supervisor (β = −0.29, p < 0.001). With respect to CS, the final model included TAS-20 total score (β = −0.33, p < 0.001), the Empatic Concern domain (β = 0.23, p < 0.001) of the IRI questionnaire and the individual's perception of being valued by colleagues (β = 0.22, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Alexithymia increased the likelyhood to experience burnout and negatively affected the professional quality of life amongst RTTs working in oncology. Empathy resulted in higher professional fulfillment together with collegaues’ appreciation. These results may be used to benchmark preventing strategies and implement organization-direct and/or individual-directed interventions