WELL-BEING, SOURCES OF STRESS AND COPING STRATEGIES IN A SAMPLE OF ONCOLOGISTS

Abstract

Background: Several studies have highlighted that some professional categories, called: ‘helping professions’, appear, more than other professions, to be subjected to sources of stress and the connected risks of burn-out. In particular personnel working in oncology face potentially stressful situations and having to deal daily with the needs and concerns of the patients and their families. It is therefore necessary to understand the variables that can limit the impact of stress. This research seeks to explore the degree of personal well-being of the oncologists interviewed, taking into consideration some possible predictors, such as the age and specific trainings (i.e. in diagnosis communication, stress management, and so on). We connected this kind of predictors with the sources of stress typical to the medical profession, the coping strategies, the degree of work engagement and the perceived degree of organizational support. Methods: The research included 138 subjects (doctors that work in a range of oncological units in Italy). The subjects completed a self-report questionnaire with the aim of evaluating the perception of stress and coping strategies (Using the Health professions stress and coping scale), the degree of personal well-being (using the General Health Questionnaire) and the degree of work engagement (using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale); a purpose-built scale to measure the degree of perceived organizational support was also administered. Results: According to our expectations, age is not related to the stress and his possible sources, whereas the training shows high correlation levels with the total amount of stress (r = 0.35), some of the possible daily stressors (i.e. facing to death, r = 0.33). Conclusions: The results are comparable with other international research, but we would obviously need to have an extended sample to better understand the possible psychological protection factors of the helping professions.