Επαγγελματική εξουθένωση : μελέτη περίπτωσης στο νοσηλευτικό προσωπικό κλινικών COVID δημόσιου νοσοκομείου
Burnout syndrome : a study of cases in the nursing staff in COVID-19 clinics of a public hospital
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Keywords
Επαγγελματική εξουθένωση ; Επαγγελματίες υγείας ; COVID-19 ; Πανδημία ; Παθογένεια επαγγελματικής εξουθένωσης ; Επιδημιολογικά δεδομένα ; Συμπτώματα επαγγελματικής εξουθένωσης ; ΠρόληψηAbstract
Health workers are exposed to an increased risk of burnout associated both with the work burden and with their daily contact with the physical and emotional problems of the patients. This phenomenon is getting more serious during the pandemic COVID-19 exerting a tremendous pressure on the Health Systems worldwide.
The aim of the present study was the investigation of the frequency and the severity of burnout in the nursing staff of COVID departments in a public hospital during the pandemic and to associate the findings with different characteristics of health workers
Methods: The Maslach questionnaire was used as a tool testing two types of characteristics:
Α: the demographics of the subjects like age, sex, marital status, work at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or outside ICU, job experience and educational level
Β : The Burnout questionnaire according to Maslach (Maslach Burnout Inventory-MBI, 1986) including questions investigating the 3 dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal achievement. All these parameters were graded into low, intermediated and high and to low and high according to the instructions provided by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Manual Fourth Edition published by Mind Garden Inc) and the MBI score was calculated.
Results: The study included 102 subjects: 19 males, 83 females. The emotional exhaustion was low in 70 and high in 20, the depersonalization was low in 86 and high in 11 and personal achievement was low in 50 and high in 44 subjects.
According to the MBI score the subjects were ineffective in 32.3%, dedicated in 28.4%, overloaded in 18.06% and burnout in 8.8%
Emotional exhaustion did not correlate with any characteristic of the study group.
There was a statistically significant association between the depersonalization and the work experience with COVID as well with the education level. In detail, subjects working more than 1 year in the COVID department had reduced depersonalization rate compared to the rest. Subjects with lower education level had lower levels of depersonalization compared to those with higher and persons with PhD level of education had the highest level of depersonalization.
Personal achievement correlated to the duration of work experience with COVID and to the age. Subjects with work experience between 2-6 months and 7-12 months had higher levels of personal achievement compared to the rest. Personal achievement is also reduced as the age category increases.
The MBI score correlated with the duration of work experience with COVID. Subjects with work experience less than 12 months had increased levels of burnout.
Conclusions: These results demonstrate that the depersonalization correlates with the duration of work experience with COVID (lower for subjects working >1 year) and the education level (higher for subjects with PhD compared to those with lower level of education). Personal achievement is associated with the duration of working experience with COVID (higher for <12 months) and the age (reduction with increasing age). The MBI score is associated with the duration of working experience with COVID (increased for <12 months experience). These results are important because they can lead the way for the adaptation of strategies aiming to cope with the burnout of health workers during their everyday clinical practice as well during a possible new pandemic in the future.