Journal article
Therapeutic medical physicist well-being and employment satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic in California
Journal of applied clinical medical physics, v 26(9), 70233
01 Sep 2025
PMID: 40890955
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Purpose: This study aims to investigate medical physicist job status during the COVID-19 pandemic in California and collect community feedback on strategies to alleviate job burnout and stress to improve overall work-life balance. Methods and materials: The online survey platform SurveyMonkey was used to generate a 14-question survey, enabling data collection from a large pool of respondents. The 14 survey questions were designed to assess respondent demographics, measuring eight different variables related to medical physicist job status, and collecting feedback regarding burnout and job stress. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Southern California Chapter Education Committee emailed out the survey link to all AAPM Southern California and Northern California chapter members, requesting that each person provide a single response. All responses were anonymized, and data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Results: At the end of a 6-week collection period (January 5, 2022, to February 18, 2022), a total of 97 responses (28.7%) were collected out of 338 invitations. Our analysis results show that "Burnout Level" is strongly and positively correlated with "Leaving Job" (Correlation Coefficient CC = 0.66, p < 0.05), "Work Environment" (CC = 0.54, p < 0.05), and "Stress Level" (CC = 0.70, p < 0.05); it is moderately and negatively correlated with "Salary Satisfaction" (CC = -0.49, p < 0.05) and "Job Satisfaction" (CC = -0.48, p < 0.05). Qualitative results revealed that the seven most common recommendation categories to alleviate job burnout and stress from respondents were: adequate staffing, culture of recognition, salary increase, team building, structure and organization, flexibility of remote working, and physicist involvement in decision-making. Conclusion: This study provides an overview of the job status of California-based medical physicists during the COVID-19 pandemic, offers valuable insights into managing job-related stress and burnout. These findings underscore the need for tailored interventions and policy considerations to alleviate burnout, enhance job satisfaction.
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Details
- Title
- Therapeutic medical physicist well-being and employment satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic in California
- Creators
- Xiaoyu Liu (Corresponding Author) - University of California, San FranciscoJennifer Zhang - Drexel UniversityFagen Xie - Kaiser PermanenteDan Ruan - University of California, Los AngelesX. Sharon Qi - University of California, Los AngelesZhilei L. Shen - University of Southern CaliforniaVarun Sehgal - University of California, IrvineAmy S. Yu - Stanford UniversitySteve Goetsch - Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
- Publication Details
- Journal of applied clinical medical physics, v 26(9), 70233
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 6
- Grant note
- AAPM Southern California Chapter
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Medicine
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001565544500001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105014894900
- Other Identifier
- 991022197329304721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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Source: SDGs in the Output
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging