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Staff burnout in paediatric oncology: new tools to facilitate the development and evaluation of effective
S Mukherjee1, B Beresford, A Tennant
1Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of York, York, UK.
Insights
New scales measure work stressors and rewards for pediatric oncology staff, aiding in burnout prevention and intervention development. These validated tools support research and clinical practice in this high-stress field.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Psychology
- Healthcare Staff Well-being
Background:
- Pediatric oncology work is stressful, increasing burnout risk.
- Lack of validated instruments hinders development of staff support interventions.
- Context-specific measures are needed to assess stressors and rewards.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate reliable research instruments for assessing work stressors and rewards in pediatric oncology.
- To create the Work Stressors Scale - Paediatric Oncology (WSS-PO) and the Work Rewards Scale - Paediatric Oncology (WRS-PO).
Main Methods:
- Qualitative interviews to generate an item pool (n=32).
- Cognitive interviews (n=7) for feedback on draft measures.
- Survey of staff (n=203) with draft and comparator measures.
- Factor and Rasch analysis for psychometric properties.
- Assessment of construct validity.
Main Results:
- The Work Stressors Scale - Paediatric Oncology (WSS-PO) and Work Rewards Scale - Paediatric Oncology (WRS-PO) were developed.
- Both scales demonstrated strong content validity.
- Measures fulfilled classical test theory and Rasch model requirements for interval scaling.
Conclusions:
- The WSS-PO and WRS-PO are valid and reliable tools for pediatric oncology research.
- These scales can identify factors contributing to burnout.
- The measures will facilitate targeted development of staff support interventions.
Abstract:
Working in paediatric oncology can be stressful, and staff may need support if they are to avoid burnout, but there is currently no evidence base to guide the development of interventions. As a significant barrier to addressing this gap is a lack of context specific research instruments, a project was undertaken to develop measures of the stressors and rewards experienced by staff. Measure development involved: (1) qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of paediatric oncology staff to develop an 'item pool' (n = 32); (2) selection of items for draft measures; (3) cognitive interviews (n = 7) to gather feedback on draft measures; (4) a survey of staff (n = 203) using the draft and comparator measures; (5) factor and Rasch analysis to determine the scaling properties of the measures; (6) an assessment of construct validity. As a result, the Work Stressors Scale - Paediatric Oncology (WSS-PO) and the Work Rewards Scale - Paediatric Oncology (WRS-PO) were created. Both measures have considerable content validity, and fulfil classical test theory requirements and Rasch model requirements for an interval level scale. These new measures can be used in research and clinical practice to investigate factors associated with burnout, and to facilitate and direct the development of staff interventions.
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