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Assessing the wellbeing of cytoscreeners: experience in two NHS cytology laboratories
Author(s) -
Dowie R.,
Stoykova B.,
Desai M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
cytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1365-2303
pISSN - 0956-5507
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2303.2006.00383.x
Subject(s) - autonomy , medicine , burnout , work (physics) , cynicism , job satisfaction , family medicine , cervical screening , medical education , psychology , nursing , social psychology , clinical psychology , political science , mechanical engineering , cervical cancer , cancer , politics , law , engineering
Objective: Cervical screening programmes in England are in transition as the liquid‐based cytology (LBC) method replaces conventional Papanicolaou screening and staff in NHS laboratories are trained to analyse LBC smears. Cytoscreeners and biomedical scientists undertake routine microscopy of slides, but the scientists usually have a wider professional role. Attitudinal surveys were carried out in laboratories where LBC was partially introduced. Methods: Staff in two cytology laboratories in Greater Manchester were surveyed twice over 6 months. The questionnaire assessed work pressures using scales from the Measures of Work Characteristics instrument, work‐related stress using the General Survey version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, job intentions and job satisfaction. Results: Cytoscreeners, many aged over 50 years, formed over 60% of respondents in both surveys (27/42 in the first survey), and biomedical scientists and doctors, 30%. Both groups were under moderate pressure from work demands in each survey, but cytoscreeners had significantly less autonomy over their working methods ( P < 0.001). Although both groups experienced similar levels of exhaustion, cytoscreeners were much more cynical or indifferent towards work in the second survey ( P = 0.008) and had lower expectations of being effective ( P < 0.001). For the cytoscreeners, there were strong negative correlations in both surveys between cynicism and the work characteristics of influencing decisions and autonomy/control. Conclusions: The strength of the relationship between work performance and wellbeing serves to emphasize the importance of the new LBC technology in ameliorating low morale where it exists. Further attitudinal research involving larger samples of laboratories is warranted to assess the full impact of this innovation.