Professional burnout of outpatient and inpatient healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic (according to Maslach Burnout Inventory, MBI)

Abstract

Doctors and healthcare workers are among the most «burnout» professions. Burnout syndrome occurs when there is physical and emotional exhaustion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical workers have the highest psychoemotional burden. Professional burnout can largely affect the efficiency of both the employee and the unit as a whole. Purpose — to investigate the syndrome of professional burnout among medical workers of COVID hospitals; outpatient medical workers and medical workers of multidisciplinary hospitals. A group of medical workers from COVID hospitals (n = 201) was examined; a group of medical workers of the outpatient clinic level (n = 186); a group of medical workers of multidisciplinary hospitals (n = 195), as well as a control group (n = 190). To study the professional burnout syndrome in the presented groups, the Maslach Burnout questionnaire was used. At the stage of the study, it was revealed that medical workers in COVID hospitals have significantly higher rates of «professional exhaustion» and «depersonalization» compared to medical workers in multidisciplinary hospitals (p ≤ 0.001) and outpatient medical workers (p ≤ 0.001). At the same time, medical workers in COVID hospitals have a significantly lower indicator of «reduction in personal achievements» compared to medical workers in multidisciplinary hospitals and outpatient clinics. Thus, in a comparative study, it was revealed that all the studied groups of medical workers, according to the Maslach Burnout test, have increased rates of professional burnout. At the same time, medical workers in COVID hospitals have significantly higher rates of «professional exhaustion», «depersonalization» and lower values of the «reduction of personal achievements» indicator, compared with medical workers in multidisciplinary hospitals and outpatient clinics. Treatment of patients with novel coronavirus infection is a factor influencing the psychological health and professional burnout of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.