Specialist physicians battle against the COVID-19 pandemic: the relationship between specialist physicians working conditions and levels of burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ç. Turan, T. Acar, B.A. Acar, Y. Ünlübaş, R. Erdoğan, Y. Güzey Aras, N. Uçaroğlu Can

Department of Psychiatry, Gediz State Hospital, Kütahya, Turkey. tdeniz38@hotmail.com

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• Infectious Diseases
• Psychiatry

OBJECTIVE: This study was planned to determine the burnout levels of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to contribute to taking the necessary measures by determining the associated factors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research was designed via Google Online Form as an online survey with questions of Sociodemographic Data Form, Maslach Burnout Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory and was conducted with 40 specialist physicians actively working at the Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital. The same questionnaire was re-applied online after two months, and 24 out of 40 physicians were accessed. The SPSS 25 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) program was used for the analysis of the data.

RESULTS: According to the Maslach Burnout Inventory applied in the pre-test, it was found that the feeling of personal accomplishment was high, emotional burnout was normal, and depersonalization was low. Anxiety and burnout were found to be positively correlated, and there were no statistically significant differences in the average values of the pre-and post-test Maslach Burnout Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory scores.

CONCLUSIONS: Detecting possible burnout in physicians working in a pandemic, identifying associated factors and taking required measures can be beneficial both for physicians and society from a biopsychosocial perspective.

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