Current research, based on qualitative methodology, analyzes the psycho-occupational work undertaken by health professionals in a Child Oncology Clinic of a government public hospital. Half-structured interviews, applied to nine health professionals, showed that difficulties in job organization, namely, lack of job acknowledgement, disadvantages in routine work, failures in staff coordination, precarious resources, poor administration procedures in the health service, the disease and treatment’s peculiarities, and the child’s death, are stress factors. Results indicate the importance of structural factors in determining professional stress and the need of greater institutional support and professional upgrading so that health professionals may better deal with the subjective aspects of health service and avoid the professional stress or burnout.
Child Oncology Clinic; job satisfaction; professional stress & burnout