Burnout in clinical research coordinators in the United States.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To assess burnout among clinical research coordinators (CRCs) and to determine which personal and job-related factors are associated with burnout. DESIGN Random, stratified, cross-sectional mail survey. SETTING CRCs from membership lists of clinical research organizations. SAMPLE 252 CRCs in the United States. To be included in the study, participants must have been in their current position longer than six months and involved in clinical trial coordination or data management. Of 2,770 records, 900 CRCs were mailed questionnaires; 35% (316) responded, and 252 of those were eligible for analysis. Eligible respondents were Caucasian (86%), female (94%), and employed full-time (92%) in an oncology setting (71%). METHODS Respondents completed mailed self-administered questionnaires measuring burnout, job satisfaction, personality characteristics, perceived work overload, and selected personal- and employment-related data. Data analyses included descriptive, univariate, and multivariate statistics. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLE Burnout. FINDINGS About 70% of respondents were satisfied with their job, and 74% would still choose the clinical research profession. Approximately 44% reported high emotional exhaustion, a component of burnout. Factors independently associated with high emotional exhaustion burnout were low satisfaction with job (p 0.0001), high perceived daily workload (p 0.0001), and low endurance personality (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS Burnout is prevalent in CRCs. Job dissatisfaction, perceived daily work overload, low endurance, and nurturance personality traits were associated with high burnout. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING Nurses are involved significantly in clinical trial coordination. High burnout rates have potentially negative implications for data quality and productivity in clinical trial data management-important values for nursing and the clinical research profession.