A Study to Assess the Occupational Burnout and Level of Stress among Frontline Health Professionals during COVID-19 Pandemic in Selected Hospital of New Delhi

Abstract

Introduction: During the fierce pandemic of COVID-19, the entire healthcare workforce has experienced high psycho-social stress and huge loads of work, which is likely to affect their emotional and mental well-being and guide them to a state of burnout. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the occupational burnout and level of stress among frontline health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic and to seek the association of occupational burnout and level of stress with selected socio-demographic variables among frontline health professionals, who worked during COVID-19 pandemic respectively. Method: The descriptive survey included 200 frontline health professionals who worked during COVID-19 pandemic using non-probability purposive sampling technique. Standardised tools were used for data collection i.e. Burnout Assessment Tool for assessing occupational burnout and Perceived Stress Scale for the level of stress. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for the analysis of data. Results: Out of 200 health professionals, most frontline health professionals who worked during COVID-19 pandemic had an average occupational burnout. More than half of the sample had moderate, followed by 43.5% who had low and only 1% who had a high level of stress. There was a significant association of occupational burnout and level of stress with selected socio-demographic variables at a level of significance of 0.05. Conclusion: A large proportion of frontline health professionals who worked during COVID-19 had average occupational burnout and more than half suffered from moderate to high stress. Awareness must be created about factors causing stress and coping strategies, which can lead to the prevention of occupational burnout.