Occupational stress, survivorship issues and key themes in this issue: occupational stress, survivorship interventions, cancer in Chinese populations D. WELLER MBBS(ADEL), MPH, PHD, FRACGP, FRCGP, FAFPHM, FRCP(EDIN), JAMES MACKENZIE PROFESSOR OF GENERAL PRACTICE, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, and CHAIR, Cancer and Primary Care Research International Network (Ca-PRI), Edinburgh, UK, & V.E. KNOTT B.A., HONS PSYCH, PHD, HONORARY FELLOW, Menzies School of Health Research, Brisbane, Australia WELLER D. & KNOTT V.E. (2014) European Journal of Cancer Care 23, 423–425 Occupational stress, survivorship issues and key themes in this issue: occupational stress, survivorship interventions, cancer in Chinese populations Keywords: occupational stress, burnout, survivorship. We’re pleased, as an Editorial team, to notice an increase in submissions to the Journal. We hope our message that EJCC is a good vehicle for high quality multi-disciplinary research is reaching our community of researchers. The first of our themed issues (on Informatics and E-Health) will be in November 2014 and we’ve been busy putting together papers for that – but in the meantime, we have a good mix of themes in the July issue of EJCC. This month features papers that reflect the theme of ‘occupational stress’. Healthcare professionals working in oncology are exposed to acute and chronic stress as part of their day-to-day activities at work; they are routinely faced with situations and patient scenarios which can deplete their emotional resources, reducing the effective- ness of coping strategies leading, potentially, to errors in judgement (Isikhan et al. 2004). Increasingly, Maslach et al.’s (2006) concept of ‘burnout’ has been applied to healthcare professionals working in oncology (Hansen & Girgis 2010). This area of work is exceptionally important in the cancer care setting as the consequences of burnout (e.g. emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, loss of effi- cacy) ultimately impact on the quality of care patients receive. In this issue, Mukhurjee et al. (2014; pp. 450–461) report on the application of tools to assess for burnout amongst staff in the paediatric setting with a focus on the development and evaluation of interventions to support staff. An underexplored area with regard to occupational stress experienced by researchers in the cancer setting is the focus of Kennedy et al.’s (2014; pp. 462–471) novel paper. Staff working in palliative care face particularly con- fronting issues and often need to develop a high degree of resilience in order to prevent emotional distress (Ablett & Jones 2007). In this issue King-Okoye and Arber (2014; pp. 441–449) explore the experiences of student nurses in caring for cancer patients; they describe the impact of these experiences on trainees in their formative years. Udo et al. (2014; pp. 426–440) explore nurses’ attitudes towards dying, the existential issues that can arise from staff/patient interaction, and educational interventions which might impact on these existential issues. Cancer survivorship is another important theme in this issue of EJCC. Exercise and physical activity are increas- ingly being promoted amongst cancer survivors – there appear to be a range of benefits (McNeely et al. 2006) and promotion of physical activity has become an important component in cancer survivorship strategies. Advice con- cerning physical activity needs to be carefully tailored to individual patients’ situations and there are a range of approaches to exercise programmes; for example, group exercise programmes show promise in some breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant treatment (Campbell et al. Correspondence address: David Weller, James Mackenzie Professor of General Practice, Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Doorway 1, Medical Quad, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9DX, Scotland (e-mail: David.Weller@ed.ac.uk). DOI: 10.1111/ecc.12212 European Journal of Cancer Care, 2014, 23, 423–425 Editorial © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd