Abstract
Objectives: COVID-19 has been recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and physicians are at the frontline to confront the disease. Burnout syndrome (BOS) is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. The objective of this study is to evaluate the frequency and associated risk factors of BOS among a sample of Egyptian physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: Using Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey, a cross-sectional electronic survey was conducted to assess BOS among the target group.Results: Two hundred and twenty physicians participated in the study. The frequency of BOS among the research group was 36.36%. The possibility of development of BOS increased two times with the need to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) from participants' own money, with harassment by patients' families, and was less likely to develop in doctors with older age. While male gender was a predictor of depersonalization (DP), female gender showed a significant association with higher emotional exhaustion (EE). Infection or death from COVID-19 among colleagues or relatives showed significant association with elevated EE and lowered personal achievement (PA), respectively.Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic added new factors to the development of BOS in our research group. Several measures should be taken to support physicians at this stage. These measures include psychological support, organizing work hours, adjusting salaries, and providing personal protective equipment and training on safety measures.
Highlights
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic in March 2020 [1]
All of the above challenges could potentially lead to a rise in mental health problems among physicians and other healthcare workers [4, 5]
The sample size was determined using the Epi Info 7 software program based on the expected frequency of burnout syndrome among physicians dealing with COVID-19 cases (13%) [9] at a 95% confidence interval and a limit of 5% precision
Summary
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic in March 2020 [1]. Rapid decision making has been the key to proper diagnoses, isolation, and successful treatment of cases. Another obvious source of stress is the increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 among these physicians, raising worries about contracting the disease and/or transmitting it to their families and loved ones. The COVID-19 pandemic, unpreceded in our lifetimes, has caused a growing burden on medical services in both developing and developed countries. This burden, together with the shortage of human and nonhuman resources resulted in a marked increase in the workload among healthcare workers. All of the above challenges could potentially lead to a rise in mental health problems among physicians and other healthcare workers [4, 5]
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