Mobbing and burnout in physicians and nurses in the Covid-19 pandemic: An example of a university hospital in Tekirdag

The aim of this study was to determine the mobbing perception, burnout level and affecting factors in physicians and nurses serving in a university hospital in Tekirdağ during the COVID-19 period. The thesis study was carried out between 25 May-25 August 2021 at Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Hospital with the participation of a total of 151 physicians and nurses through face-to-face and with online/web programs. In addition to the personal information form, which includes socio-demographic characteristics and questions related to COVID-19, prepared by the researchers in the questionnaire, there are also two scales with validity and reliability studies in Turkish that were used by. These Scales; 1. Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror Questionnaire (LİPT) to measure mobbing perception, 2. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to determine burnout level. In order to carry out this study, the permissions of the Ministry of Health, the Chief Physician of the Hospital, Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Non-Interventional Studies Ethics Committee and the approvals of the participants were obtained. IBM SPSS 26.00 program was used for data analysis. 58.9% of the participants were female, the mean age was 35±10; 49.7% of them had a master's degree or higher, 54.3% were nurses and 38.4% were academicians. The majority of the participants stated that the working conditions changed badly (53.0%), the workload increased (62.3%), and they felt fear and anxiety about the disease (86.1%) during the pandemic conditions. 83.07% of the study group stated that they were exposed to mobbing behavior and 17.93% stated that they had never been exposed to mobbing. The mean LIPT score of the participants was 4.64±0.47. Participants mostly (79.31%) Mobbing Scale "Interference Communication" sub-dimension (3.85±1.05 mean " there was gossiped about me " item) the highest mobbing expression; they stated that they were exposed to the " Threatening Physical Health " sub-dimension at least (30.34%) and the item "I was sexually harassed" with an average of 4.94±0.22. The MBI emotional burnout sub-dimension average was 14.93±8.50, the depersonalization sub-dimension average 6.00±4.42, and the personal accomplishment sub-dimension burnout was 13.37±6.93. These values indicate that the participants experienced low levels of burnout. More than half of the study group had the perception that their lives were negatively affected by COVID-19, and the majority of them were exposed to mobbing; It was determined that the group experienced burnout at a low level, but also experienced some negativities in both their professional life, social life and close social circles that may appear from COVID-19. In this regard, it is recommended to be prepared for social emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide healthy and safe working environments for healthcare professionals. Key Words: Mobbing, Burn-out, University Hospital, COVID-19, Healthcare Workers