This first study of stress, satisfaction and burnout among radiation oncologists in Australia and New Zealand had a reasonable response rate and identified specific areas of stress and satisfaction. Nearly half of the respondents scored highly in one burnout subscale. Some of the stress and satisfaction subscales correlated with certain aspects of burnout. Further research will be undertaken to refine the stress and satisfaction parameters and address burnout interventions.

IntroductionTo evaluate the incidence of burnout among radiation oncology trainees in Australia and New Zealand and the stress and satisfaction factors related to burnout.MethodsA survey of trainees was conducted in mid‐2015. There were 42 Likert scale questions on stress, 14 Likert scale questions on satisfaction and the Maslach Burnout Inventory‐Human Services Survey assessed burnout. A principal component analysis identified specific stress and satisfaction areas. Categorical variables for the stress and satisfaction factors were computed. Associations between respondent's characteristics and stress and satisfaction subscales were examined by independent sample t‐tests and analysis of variance. Effect sizes were calculated using Cohens's d when significant mean differences were observed. This was also done for respondent characteristics and the three burnout subscales. Multiple regression analyses were performed.ResultsThe response rate was 81.5%. The principal component analysis for stress identified five areas: demands on time, professional development/training, delivery demands, interpersonal demands and administration/organizational issues. There were no significant differences by demographic group or area of interest after P‐values were adjusted for the multiple tests conducted. The principal component analysis revealed two satisfaction areas: resources/professional activities and value/delivery of services. There were no significant differences by demographic characteristics or area of interest in the level of satisfaction after P‐values were adjusted for the multiple tests conducted. The burnout results revealed 49.5% of respondents scored highly in emotional exhaustion and/or depersonalization and 13.1% had burnout in all three measures. Multiple regression analysis revealed the stress subscales ‘demands on time’ and ‘interpersonal demands’ were associated with emotional exhaustion. ‘Interpersonal demands’ was also associated with depersonalization and correlated negatively with personal accomplishment. The satisfaction of value/delivery of services subscale was associated with higher levels of personal accomplishment.ConclusionsThere is a significant level of burnout among radiation oncology trainees in Australia and New Zealand. Further work addressing intervention would be appropriate to reduce levels of burnout.

The findings suggest that both quantity and quality of social relationships can play a role in buffering against the negative implications of physical health decline for mental health.

This article presents an introduction to the Building a New Life in Australia (BNLA) dataset, a large-scale longitudinal study of humanitarian migrants in Australia. We outline the main characteristics of the study and provide an overview of the measures available and potential uses. The first three waves of the BNLA data are currently available to approved users, covering the first three years of the settlement journey of a recent cohort of humanitarian migrants in Australia.