In the last forty-five years, burnout has evolved from a psychological fad to a validated syndrome included in both the 10th and 11th editions of the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization. Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the prevalence and toll of burnout within the health care sector including within the field of oncology. However, the impact of this syndrome on medical physicists has been largely unevaluated. This dissertation study aims to fill the gap in the literature by examining job-related attitudes and burnout amongst medical physicists in the United States. Themulti-dimensional theory of burnout provided the theoretical underpinnings of this cross-sectional correlational study. The survey instrument utilized in this dissertation study consisted of two questionnaires, theMaslach Burnout Inventory and an organizational survey tool based on version one of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Survey on Patient Safety Culture. The Maslach Burnout Inventory was used to quantify the burnout burden amongst medical physicists in the United States. Additionally, the relationship between the emotional exhaustion domain and work hours, error reports, and organizational and safety features amongst therapeutic medical physicists was also determined
