Forecasting, diagnosis and prevention of professional burnout, anxiety levels and coping strategies among medical professionals in situations of high epidemic risk

Introduction. In the situation of high epidemic risk during the pandemic of the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19, nurses turned out to be one of the most vulnerable categories among medical professionals in terms of levels of occupational stress, professional burnout, anxiety, use of coping strategies, and decreased quality of life. Purpose of the study. To establish the features of professional burnout, the level of anxiety, implemented coping strategies, and the quality of life in nurses working in "red zone" hospitals, multidisciplinary hospitals, and polyclinics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods. The study was performed at the Department of Occupational Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology named after honored scientist of the Russian Federation professor V.V. Kosarev, FSBEI HE Samara State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, and the regional center for occupational pathology SBHI SR Samara City Hospital No. 5. The following groups of medical workers (MW) were examined: the first group consisted of nurses working in the "red zone" (MW working in the "red zone") (n=29); the second group included nurses at a multidisciplinary hospital (MW working in a MD hospital) (n=31); the third group consisted of polyclinic nurses (MW working in polyclinics) (n=29); the fourth, control group (CG), included employees of engineering, technical, and economic specialties not related to medical organizations (n=190). The assessment of the professional burnout was carried out using 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 by means of the questionnaire by V.V. Boyko. The study utilized an integrative anxiety test (IAT) to study the formation of psychoemotional disorders in nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluation of nurses’ coping strategies during the pandemic was carried out according to the methodology developed by R. Lazarus and S. Folkman in 1988, adapted by E.V. Kuftyak. The quality of life was determined using the SF-36 questionnaire. The processing of the obtained data was carried out by means of the Statistica package from StatSof t (USA). Results. It has been established that the work of medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with the impact of a number of specific risk factors related to the provision of medical care to infected patients, as well as with significant changes in work regarding organization and safety, which contributed to an increase in the level of occupational stress and professional burnout, and a decrease in the quality of life. Conclusion. The work of medical professionals at COVID hospitals, when compared with MW work ing at multidisciplinary hospitals and polyclinics, is associated with an increase in the levels of occupational stress, professional burnout, and anxiety, an increase in the use of coping strategies, and a decrease in the quality of life. It is necessary to continue research on the emotional state of MW in order to timely carry out preventive treatment to preserve the health of this category of medical workers. Limitations of the study. The study has regional (Samara Region) and professional (in terms of detailing working conditions in the studied comparison groups) limitations.