Exploring staff turnover, burnout, and resilience in cytology reference laboratories: A workforce qualitative study

Objectives
The aims of the study were to investigate cytology laboratory staff turnover in the context of workplace stressors and burnout and to explore qualities associated with long career tenure, in order to facilitate the development of future workplace intervention programs.

Methods
Using an interpretive qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using a directed and conventional content analysis. Seven participants who had left large cytology reference laboratories were purposively sampled to interview about their experience of leaving their former laboratories. Conventional content analysis was used to inductively generate themes and deductive content analysis was conducted with categories from the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (ie, stress appraisal and coping style).