Medical Social Workers in Hospitals: Burnout and Secondary Trauma During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 presented numerous challenges to medical professional's mental, emotional, and physical health, including burnout and secondary trauma. As social workers served as essential and frontline workers during COVID-19, it is important to investigate the effects of the pandemic on professional burnout and secondary trauma responses. A multiracial sample of 163 medical social workers working across four hospital settings responded to a survey addressing burnout and the impact of COVID-19. Medical social workers in this sample reported high levels of emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment and moderate levels of depersonalization. Regression analyses found that hyperarousal scores significantly predicted emotional exhaustion, identifying as Latinx and Black significantly predicted depersonalization, and being older and identifying as White significantly predicted personal accomplishment among medical social workers. Resiliency programs can be developed for medical social workers in direct practice to reduce secondary traumatic stress and increase employee well-being. Future research should employ more rigorous research designs to better understand risk and protective factors for burnout among medical social workers providing direct practice to clients and families.