Occupation and stress: professional burnout of GPs depending on the profile of the medical institution in situations of high epidemic risk

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Introduction. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical workers turned out to be the most vulnerable category of the population in terms of the risk of developing psycho-emotional disorders. Objective. To establish the characteristics of the psycho-emotional state among general practitioners of COVID hospitals, multidisciplinary hospitals, and polyclinics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods. The study included: group 1 – general practitioners of COVID hos pitals (n=111); group 2 – internists of multidisciplinary hospitals (n=106); group 3 – GPs working in polyclinics (n=102); group 4 – control group (healthy) (n=190). The assess ment of professional burnout was carried out by means of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, developed by American psychologists C. Maslach and S.E. Jackson, in adaptation by N.E. Vodopyanova and E.S. Starchenkova, as well as using V.V. Boyko’s questionnaire. The study utilized an integrative anxiety test to investigate the formation of psycho-emotional disorders in internists during the pandemic of the novel coronavirus infection. The quality of life was determined by means of the SF-36 questionnaire. The processing of the ob tained data was carried out using the Statistica package from StatSof t (USA). Results. It has been established that the work of general practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with the impact of occupational stress related to caring for in fected patients on medical workers, as well as with significant changes in work regarding aspects of organization and safety, which contributed to an increase in the levels of oc cupational stress, professional burnout, and anxiety, and a decrease in the quality of life. Limitations of the study. The study has regional (Samara Region) and professional (in terms of detailing the working conditions in the studied comparison groups) limitations. Conclusions. The work of general practitioners of specialized COVID hospitals, internists of multidisciplinary hospitals, and GPs of polyclinics is associated with an increase in the levels of occupational stress, professional burnout, and anxiety, and a decrease in the quality of life. Notably, psychological changes are most pronounced in employees of specialized COVID hospitals. It is necessary to continue research on the emotional state of medical personnel in order to timely carry out preventive treatment to preserve the health of medical workers.