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All jobs have pressures that can make getting through the day a struggle – some more than others. Jobs website CareerCast.com just released their list of the most stressful jobs in America and it’s no surprise that right at the top are soldiers, firefighters, and airline pilots. On the other hand, biologist makes the top ten list (#7) for best job, right after meteorologist and systems analyst.

Not on any of these lists, but the focus of a study by Roth et al. from the Montefiore hospital in New York, are pediatric oncologists. The authors investigated levels of ‘career burnout’ – a work-related syndrome involving emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished feelings of personal accomplishment; frighteningly, 72% in this job group say they experience at least moderate levels of burnout and 38% experience high levels. As Maciej Murawski and Piotr Czauderna point out in their evaluation, this doesn’t account for those who might be suffering from the condition but are unaware of it. Burnout was also found to be more prominent in women than men (47% vs. 32%), especially among those who have been working under 10 years (50% vs. 33%). The hours in clinical care, work-life balance and, most of all, the emotional rigors of the job equate to an incredible investment of time and energy.

The buildup of a certain amount of personal scar tissue is almost unavoidable in a medical career, but this article throws open an important question: are we doing enough to support doctors? According to Roth et al.’s results, only 40% of institutions have a service in place to help with burnout, clearly inadequate as greater demands are placed on health services around the world by expanding populations and shrinking budgets.

We spoke with a pediatric oncologist who serves as an F1000 Faculty Member, who observed, “the idea that experiencing burnout is a weakness, not to be openly discussed, persists in pediatric oncology.” Yet as the Roth article shows, forums for debriefing and services to help with burnout are associated with lower rates of the condition, so getting the community to open up to the problem could yield a significant benefit.

Our source believes there is one key area for improvement that could help tackle this issue head on:

Trainees in pediatric oncology receive little training in strategies to deal with the stress of caring for children with cancer and their families… Improved trainee education about this issue may be an effective strategy both to reduce the chance that pediatric oncologists in training experience it and to break down the misconception that it is a weakness not to be openly acknowledged.

Though on a more positive note: “Strong connections and meaningful relationships with children and their families can be very rewarding, which can in turn be protective against burnout. So, some of the very things that may increase the risk for burnout are also the things which can protect against it.”

We’d like to hear from you about burnout in your discipline and what support you’ve experienced (if any), so do let us know. And finally, in case you were wondering, the least stressful job is …………. medical records technician. Apparently these professionals don’t have the time or inclination to read the stories of patients between the lines.