Oncologists’ negative attitudes towards expressing emotion over patient death and burnout

Leeat Granek, Merav Ben-David, Ora Nakash, Michal Cohen, Lisa Barbera, Samuel Ariad, Monika K. Krzyzanowska

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: The aims of this study were to examine the relationship between negative attitudes towards expressing emotion following patient death and burnout in oncologists and to explore oncologists’ preferences for institutional interventions to deal with patient death. Methods: The participants included a convenience sample of 177 oncologists from Israel and Canada. Oncologists completed a questionnaire package that included a sociodemographic survey, a burnout measure, a survey assessing negative attitudes towards expressing emotion, and a survey assessing desired interventions to cope with patient death. To examine the association between burnout and negative attitudes while controlling for the effect of sociodemographic variables, a hierarchical linear regression was computed. Results: Higher burnout scores were related to higher negative attitudes towards perceived expressed emotion (partial r = .25, p < .01) of those who viewed this affect as a weakness and as a sign of unprofessionalism. Approximately half of the oncologists found each of the five categories of institutional interventions (pedagogical strategies, emotional support, group/peer support, taking time off, and research and training) helpful in coping with patient death. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that high burnout scores are associated with negative attitudes towards expressing emotion and that there is a wide variation in oncologist preferences in coping with patient death. Institutions should promote interventions that are varied and that focus on the needs of oncologists in order to reduce burnout. Interventions that legitimize expression of emotion about patient death may be useful. Another way to reduce stigma would be to require oncologists to “opt out” rather than “opt in” to accessing a selection of social and/or individual interventions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1607-1614
Number of pages8
JournalSupportive Care in Cancer
Volume25
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2017

Keywords

  • Burnout
  • Coping
  • Oncologists
  • Oncology
  • Patient death
  • Stigma

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology

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