Impact of professional type on job satisfaction and job burnout among physicians in oncology-specialty hospital: the mediating and moderating roles of perceived organizational support and career adaptability

As cancer incidence continues to rise globally, oncology-specialty hospitals have assumed an increasingly central role in modern healthcare systems. Within these institutions, differentiation in professional roles may be associated with variations in physicians’ occupational experiences. This study examines the association between professional type (oncological vs. non-oncological physicians) and job satisfaction and job burnout, and explores the mediating and moderating roles of perceived organizational support and career adaptability.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 383 physicians from five provincial-level oncology-specialty hospitals in China. Physicians were classified according to departmental function as oncological physicians directly involved in cancer diagnosis and treatment, and hospital-based non-oncological specialist physicians providing diagnostic, perioperative, imaging, pathological, or other supportive services within oncology-specialty hospitals. The latter group did not include general physicians practicing outside oncology-specialty hospitals. Standardized instruments were used to assess job satisfaction, job burnout, perceived organizational support, and career adaptability. Available demographic and work-related covariates, including sex, age, education level, years of clinical experience, and weekly working hours, were considered in the adjusted analyses. Group comparisons, bootstrapped mediation analyses, and joint moderation models were performed using SPSS and Stata.

Oncological physicians reported significantly higher job satisfaction than non-oncological physicians. However, they also reported higher overall levels of job burnout, a pattern primarily characterized by elevated emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Perceived organizational support and career adaptability were both associated with job satisfaction and job burnout and served as mediating variables linking professional type with these outcomes. In addition, both resources functioned as moderators, conditioning the magnitude of professional-type differences. Career adaptability was particularly relevant for non-oncological physicians, showing a buffering pattern in relation to job burnout.

Differences in professional roles within oncology-specialty hospitals are closely associated with physicians’ job satisfaction and job burnout. Perceived organizational support and career adaptability play complementary process and boundary roles in shaping these associations.