Burnout syndrome among medical professions during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the period of March to September 2023, a total of 185 patients were enrolled in the study via an online questionnaire.Most of the recruited study subjects were nurses (113 people; 61% of the study group), followed by physiotherapists (63; 34%), physicians (6; 3%) SummaryIntroduction: The aim of the study was to assess the risk of burnout syndrome in a group of medical employees who had worked during the COVID-19 pandemic.The secondary objective was to compare two medical groups with the highest response rates -nurses and physiotherapists.Material and methods: During the period of March to September 2023, a total of 169 respondents (age 37.2, 22-62, SD = 10.7)-medics (fitting the criteria) -were recruited for the study.The group was dominated by nurses (61% of the group) and physiotherapists (31%); therefore the authors decided to perform a comparative analysis on those 2 groups.The study used an original questionnaire based on a Maslach Burnout Inventory, Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel tool.It was anonymous and conducted using Microsoft Forms through social forums devoted to the groups of specific medical professions.Results: The analysis showed high risk scores for 3 analysed burnout syndrome dimensions as described by Maslach: emotional exhaustion (EE) in 45% of cases, depersonalization (DP) in 59%, and reduced personal accomplishment (PA) in 96%.Differences between nurses and physiotherapists were not statistically significant; nor was prior work at a dedicated COVID-19 ward.People working in the private sector had better PA results.Prophylactic measures analysis revealed that a number of employees used alcohol as a countermeasure (p < 0.05 for all 3 dimensions).Conclusions: Burnout poses a significant and comparable threat for nurses and physiotherapists.It is vital to implement proper burnout prevention strategies to minimize the use of harmful practices (e.g.alcohol).