Burnout Amongst Healthcare Workers During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Written by Jacob Gomez
Edited by Sameeha Salman
March 21, 2022
Edited by Sameeha Salman
March 21, 2022
We’ve all experienced days where we don’t feel our best. However, there comes a point where the overwhelming fatigue and stress of the days may be caused by burnout. According to the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, burnout is a psychological condition caused by unmanaged workplace stress, which has significantly worsened by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported on January 7, 2020, the global healthcare system continues to respond to patient needs both related to and outside of COVID-19 diagnoses. This new responsibility has severely impacted the workload for these healthcare workers, as well as increased their fear of becoming infected, and negatively impacted workplace efficiency (Baptista et al., 2021).
In order to understand the feelings and mental states of these healthcare workers, researchers from the Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences (MEDCIDS) in Portugal conducted a survey focused solely on the levels of burnout, depression, stress, and anxiety Portuguese healthcare workers experienced during the outbreak of COVID-19. The researchers from MEDCIDS designed their survey on Portuguese healthcare workers through three questionnaire sections; each of these sections contained questions that required an answer on different Likert scales. The Likert scale measures the degree to which a participant agrees or relates with a statement or question. For instance, the healthcare workers responded to questions about depression and anxiety with a four point scale. In order to maximize the number of participants, the researchers shared the survey on social media with a target demographic of Portuguese-speaking healthcare workers currently practicing in Portugal. In total, 214 responses between May 9 and June 8, 2020 were recorded.
After analyzing the data, the researchers concluded that burnout levels were high among the participants. A reported 65.9% of the healthcare workers said that they experienced personal burnout, and 68.7% had work-related burnout. Likewise, the results for the DASS-21 section showed that 32.7% of healthcare workers experienced mild to severe feelings of depression, and 30.4% had mild to severe anxiety. Surprisingly, resiliency among the participants was high. 77.1% of the healthcare workers reported moderate to high levels of resiliency while working, which indicates that healthcare workers remain in their professions despite these unprecedented challenges (Baptista et al., 2021).
Although more research is necessary to further validate these findings, these results demonstrate that the Portuguese, and the global, healthcare system and its essential workers endured an incredible amount of strain and stress during the early outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. When considering the already precarious mental state of healthcare workers, these responses indicate that action must be done to protect these dedicated and essential workers. Therefore, interventions like providing emotional self care strategies, supportive networks among providers, and feedback channels to discuss personal or professional issues should be implemented to prevent healthcare burnout affecting Portugal and every country fighting against COVID-19.
References
Baptista, S., Teixeira, A., Castro, L., Cunha, M., Serrão, C., Rodrigues, A., & Duarte, I. (2021). Physician Burnout in Primary Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in Portugal. Journal of primary care & community health, 12, 21501327211008437. https://doi.org/10.1177/21501327211008437
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