Burnout and Turnover Intention in Critical Care Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan: A Cross-sectional Survey.

Rationale: The prevalence of burnout among critical care professionals during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic varies in different countries. Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of burnout and turnover intention in Japanese critical care professionals in March 2021. Methods: This cross-sectional study used a web-based survey of Japanese critical care professionals working in 15 intensive care units in 15 prefectures. Burnout was measured using the Mini Z 2.0 Survey. Intention to leave (turnover intention) was assessed by survey. Resilience was measured using the Brief Resilience Scale (Japanese version). Demographics and personal and workplace characteristics were also collected. Results: Of 1,205 critical care professionals approached, 936 (77.6%) completed the survey. Among these, 24.3%, 20.6%, and 14.2% reported symptoms of burnout, depression, and anxiety, respectively. A total of 157 respondents (16.8%) reported turnover intention. On multivariate analysis, higher resilience scores (odds ratio [OR], 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84-0.95; and OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.91-0.96) and perceived support from the hospital (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.44-0.93; and OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.40-0.73) were associated with a lower odds of burnout and turnover intention, respectively. Conclusions: Approximately 24% and 17% of the Japanese critical care professionals surveyed had symptoms of burnout and turnover intention from critical care, respectively, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such professionals require organizational support to cultivate both individual and organizational resilience to reduce burnout and turnover intention.

Multi-Institutional Study of End-to-End Dose Delivery Quality Assurance Testing for Image-Guided Brachytherapy Using a Gel Dosimeter.

PURPOSE: To quantify dose delivery errors for high-dose-rate image-guided brachytherapy (HDR-IGBT) using an independent end-to-end dose delivery quality assurance test at multiple institutions. The novelty of our study is that this is the first multi-institutional end-to-end dose delivery study in the world. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The postal audit used a polymer gel dosimeter in a cylindrical acrylic container for the afterloading system. Image acquisition using computed tomography, treatment planning, and irradiation were performed at each institution. Dose distribution comparison between the plan and gel measurement was performed. The percentage of pixels satisfying the absolute-dose gamma criterion was reviewed. RESULTS: Thirty-five institutions participated in this study. The dose uncertainty was 3.6% ± 2.3% (mean ± 1.96σ). The geometric uncertainty with a coverage factor of k = 2 was 3.5 mm. The tolerance level was set to the gamma passing rate of 95% with the agreement criterion of 5% (global)/3 mm, which was determined from the uncertainty estimation. The percentage of pixels satisfying the gamma criterion was 90.4% ± 32.2% (mean ± 1.96σ). Sixty-six percent (23/35) of the institutions passed the verification. Of the institutions that failed the verification, 75% (9/12) had incorrect inputs of the offset between the catheter tip and indexer length in treatment planning and 17% (2/12) had incorrect catheter reconstruction in treatment planning. CONCLUSIONS: The methodology should be useful for comprehensively checking the accuracy of HDR-IGBT dose delivery and credentialing clinical studies. The results of our study highlight the high risk of large source positional errors while delivering dose for HDR-IGBT in clinical practices.

[Introduction of Young Researchers' Association of Medical Physics and Questionnaire Survey on Medical Physics Education and Medical Physics Training System in Japan for Young Researchers in 2021].

Details of Young Researchers' Association of Medical Physics (YRAMP) was introduced. In addition, several questionnaire surveys on medical physics education (MPE) or medical physicist training system (MPTS) in Japan have been conducted, none have targeted the current status and issues of MPE and MPTS. The purpose of this study was to investigate those from the perspective of researchers and students under 35-year-old (y.o.). The questionnaire survey was conducted between 14th September to 14th October 2021, for 112 members of the Young Researchers' Association of Medical Physics via Google Forms. The questionnaire was in two parts: MPE (Part1) and MPTS (Part2). Three subparts were constructed in Part1: Classroom lecture, Clinical training, Education course accredited by Japanese Board of Medical Physicist Qualification. Out of a total of 126 questions, 38 were mandatory to be answered. No personal information was collected. Ninety-three members (83.0%) were answered. The age structure of the respondents was as follows: 18-21, 22-26, 27-30, and 31-35 y.o.=5.4%, 36.6%, 39.8%, and 18.2%. Of the respondents, 74.2% and 11.8% answered that they first heard of "medical physics" or "medical physicist" when they were undergraduate students and in high school or younger, respectively. In Classroom lecture, 61.3%, 17.2%, and 21.5% of the respondents answered that they were "satisfied" or "moderately satisfied", "dissatisfied" or "moderately dissatisfied", and "Not sure" with the current MPE, respectively. In Clinical training, Education course, and MPTS, 58.1%, 21.5%, and 20.4% of the respondents answered that they were "satisfied" or "moderately satisfied", "dissatisfied" or "moderately dissatisfied", and "Not sure", respectively. In both MPE and MPTS, approximately 88% and 51% of the respondents answered that "holding lectures and study sessions for high school and undergraduate students" and "utilizing YouTube" would be useful in promoting MPE and MPTS in Japan, respectively. The results of the questionnaire survey will provide useful data for MPE and MPTS in Japan.