Burnout syndrome among Tunisian medical professionals during the COVID 19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Medical professionals are known to experience high levels of stress because of their work since the current pandemic but they are rarely recognized as vulnerable and little attention is paid to their mental health. Objective: To detect burn out syndrome (BOS) among health workers in COVID19 centers and to summarise its potential risc factors. Method(s) we conducted a prospective and descriptive study, referring to Maslash Burnout Inventory, among a sample of medical professionals in COVID departments in Sfax from January to March 2020 by emailing a survey to 114 eligible participants. Result(s) Public COVID hospitals were the most frequent workplaces. Sixty three percent of people had high level of emotional exhaustion (EE), 57% had high level of depersonnalisation(DP) and 73% had low personal accomplishement(AP). These three components of MBI were correlated to female gender (P=0.001), single status (P=0.001), and the fear of contaminating siblings (P=0.001). Daily direct exposure to positive patient was noted in 79% of cases, and 42% of them had night shifts. High level of (DP) and low (AP) were correlated with night shifts at hospital (P=0.001). BOS was related to the non payment of the shifts (P<0.001), and the lack of free time (P=0.004). High levels of pressure from superiors is also correlated to low (AP) (P<0.001), while high level of (DP) was correlated to lack of appreciation from superiors (P<0.001) Conclusion(s) This study shows a high self-reported burnout level among medical professionals. It highlights the need for effective interventions to reduce BOS since the pandemic is still going on to this day.