Burnout Syndrome! Let Us Take a Look at Oncologists' Lives Too

In our country, as worldwide, cancer treatment brings extremely challenging experiences for the physicians managing this disease. Oncology is a rapidly changing and developing field. Meanwhile, patients and families experience psychological and social collapse. Physicians face the stress of managing patients correctly, the need to follow and keep pace with rapid scientific change, tracking new drug approvals, fulfilling numerous legal procedures, and their own families, lives and expectations… Expecting a practicing oncologist to manage this chaotic process full of complexities in the best possible way can lead to feelings of burnout.

Cancer patients naturally have substantial expectations of their physicians. They expect doctors to approach them in the best and most conscientious way, investigate the best treatments available worldwide and offer them. The impact of these expectations on physicians is very heavy. The physician managing treatment must keep up to date with the latest, correct information, overcome medical and legal processes and provide patients with the best therapies. This demands great sacrifices. The most important thing to remember, however, is that oncologists are human too. Consider how you begin to love patients with whom you spend long periods, even years, and feel they are family. This is actually what patients want too. Physicians who conscientiously manage many patients this way eventually encounter difficulties. Limited time for their families, the emotional dimension of their work and the difficulty of accessing the knowledge they seek can be extremely challenging. Consequently, physicians become stressed. The medical term for this stress is burnout syndrome. Similar processes occur in oncology clinics and oncologists' lives worldwide. A recent study in America showed that %45 of oncologists experienced varying degrees of burnout.

ESMO 2015 Congress discussed results of 2 studies on this subject. The first involved 2998 American oncologists. Among oncologists reporting an average workweek of 57 hours and seeing 52 patients, %45 showed varying degrees of burnout (source 1). The other study involved young European oncologists and found higher burnout among them: %75 of young oncologists working in Europe reportedly showed various signs of burnout (2).

However, we estimate that burnout is more prevalent among Turkish physicians than in America and Europe. They struggle with heavier patient loads, numerous medical and legal procedures, too few support staff and insufficient training, while also being expected to compensate for many other gaps.

What Can Patients Do for the Physicians from Whom They Expect the Greatest Effort?

Patients naturally want to trust their physicians, and under today's conditions physicians also want to trust patients. When criticizing or pointing out shortcomings and mistakes, we must therefore remember that doctors are people with feelings, whose family members and even they themselves can develop cancer. We should acknowledge positive things and thank physicians when appropriate. We should know that workloads and long appointment waits are beyond their control. We should also understand that saving a cancer patient's life may not always be possible. Sometimes managing the remaining life well and ensuring a final journey without pain or suffering and with human dignity are also highly valuable. You can understand and appreciate the physicians guiding you through difficult follow-up and treatment, make them feel your trust and share your feelings more openly.

Studies Show Burnout Rates of %60-70, Particularly Prominent Among Young Oncologists

The history and maturation of medical oncology in our country extend back 20-30 years. Considering that there are now more than 500 medical oncologists, most of them young, remember that just as you need them, they need solidarity with you.

What most protects us medical oncologists from burnout is love for people, feeling honored by success, enjoying our work and positive feedback. To increase the support they provide you, physicians therefore need to remain as free of burnout as possible.

As an extremely busy physician, I must say clearly that what most protects me from burnout is the positive feedback I receive from you, my patients, what you share with me from your warm hearts, and my family's understanding and support.

On behalf of all oncologists in our country, I invite you to understand and cooperate with the physicians accompanying you on such a difficult journey.

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