Health care worker burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of burnout among health care workers (HCWs) who are working in Saudi Arabia during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and explore individual and work-related factors associated with burnout in this population. Methods: In this cross-sectional study conducted between June to August of 2020, we invited HCWs through social channels to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire inquired about demographics, factors related to burnout, and used the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory scale to indicate burnout. A total of 646 HCWs participated. Results: The mean (SD) age of participants was 34.1 (9.5) years. Sixty-one percent were female. The Original Article prevalence of burnout among HCWs was 75%. Significant factors associated with burnout were age, job title, years of experience, increased working hours during the pandemic, average hours of sleep per day, exposure to patients with COVID-19, number of times tested for COVID-19, and perception of being pushed to deal with COVID-19 patients. Conclusion: Health care workers as frontline workers, face great challenges during this pandemic, because of the nature of their work. Efforts should be made to promote psychological resilience for HCWs during pandemics. This study points out the factors that should be invested in and the factors that may not be influential.

Prevalence and Factors Associated With Burnout of Frontline Healthcare Workers in Fighting Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From China

“…Frontline HCWs battling COVID-19 exhibited a high level of burnout in China. According various studies, the prevalence of burnout in HCWs in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic varies from 31.4 to 75% (Khasne et al, 2020;Matsuo et al, 2020;Alsulimani et al, 2021;Huo et al, 2021). The large differences across these studies may result from regional disparities and variations in burnout definitions and assessment methods (Rotenstein et al, 2018).…”

“…According to Khasne RW et al, more than half (52.8%) of HCWs in India experienced COVID-19-related burnout (Khasne et al, 2020). According to Alsulimani LK et al, the prevalence of burnout among HCWs in Saudi Arabia, which has one of the best healthcare systems in the Middle East (AlHumaid et al, 2020),was 75% during the COVID-19 pandemic (Alsulimani et al, 2021). In Europe, Italy was severely impacted by COVID-19, and Italian HCWs reported relevant work-related burnout symptoms (Barello et al, 2020;Lasalvia et al, 2021).…”

Comparison of Generalized Anxiety and Sleep Disturbance among Frontline and Second-Line Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Healthcare workers had anxiety- and sleep-allied health symptoms during the pandemic; these symptoms may be due to the nature of the job, their responsibilities while managing infected patients, and fear of the risk of infection during the pandemic. Moreover, their duties in various units, particularly high-risk medical units, were associated with poor mental health outcomes [ 23 , 24 ].…”

Network-Based Online Survey Exploring Self-Reported Depression Among University and College Students During the Early Days of the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…However, few studies investigated depression symptoms and its influencing factors among college students in China with a large sample during the early outbreak. Furthermore, most of the research related to mental health during the early COVID-19 outbreak focused on medical staff or patients ( 21 , 22 ). Detecting early-onset mental health problems among college students may have many benefits, especially for campus health services and mental health policymaking ( 23 , 24 ).…”