Short Story Clubs to Decrease Burnout

Burnout is common in hematology/oncology practice where work pressure is high, patients are complex, and outcomes are variable. We hypothesized that a short story club could be helpful to improve community, humanism, and transcendence; and thereby to decrease burnout. Most of the potential participants indicated little time for preparation and we, therefore, chose short stories rather than books as reading material. The meetings began in April 2019 and continued until April 2020 when they were suspended for the COVID-19 epidemic. Participants included oncologists (6), oncology fellows (2), psychologist (1), social workers (2), research writer (1) and, student (1). Of these, 7 were females and 6 were males; 4 in senior and 9 in junior positions. Country of origin of participants was USA (6), India (3), Syria (2), Pakistan (1) and, Poland (1). Meetings were held every two months, each time with different stories, focus, themes, and points of view. Readings included classical stories, modern stories, and personal essays, from the eyes of other oncologists, country doctor, patients, nurses, or students. Stories included “The Doctor” by Chekhov, “The Country Doctor” by Kafka, “Three Questions” by Tolstoy, “Elephant Hills” and “Indian Camp” each by Hemingway, “Interpreter of Maladies” by Lahiri, “Get your Own Fatal Disease” by Yalom, “Caves of Lascaux” by Karmel, “The Plagiarist” by Seamon and three essays on “undying,” end-of-life and love. Themes included falling in love with a patient, empathy, loneliness, burnout, communication, helplessness, and end-of-life issues. Discussions lasted two hours and promoted a sense of belonging and community; sharing of feelings and concerns; and transcendence of everyday burdens. Attendance was more than 80% at each meeting and all participants indicated an interest in continuing the club for the foreseeable future. Short story clubs may be one way to overcome or prevent burnout in oncology. Further quantitative and qualitative studies are needed.