The examination of resilience, occupational burnout levels and COVID-19 fear of healthcare workers

The world has been going through a global pandemic with unforeseeable consequences. The unprecedented outbreak of coronavirus disease, also known as COVID-19, created a climate of fear and anxiety throughout the world. The pandemic not only caused physiological issues but also psychological problems. At this point, it is undeniable that healthcare workers have been hit worst by the physical and mental impact of COVID-19. The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between resilience, the fear of COVID-19 and occupational burnout in terms of gender and task type. This research sample consists of 396 healthcare workers working at Health Sciences University (SBÜ) Adana City Training and Research Hospital and Seyhan Public Hospital. The participants were accessed through convenience sampling. 258 of these participants are female and 138 of them are male. Regarding the distribution of occupations; 33 of the participants are made up of doctors, 133 of them are nurses and 90 of them belong to other occupational groups. Along with personal information form, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), The Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), COVID-19 Anxiety Scale were utilized in this research. In conclusion, it has been observed that there is a positive correlation between the resilience of healthcare workers, occupational burnout and anxiety of COVID-19. While the gender of healthcare workers did not have any significant impact on occupational burnout and its subcategories, it was found that female healthcare workers have much higher anxiety due to COVID-19. Emotional burnout, which is a subcategory of occupational burnout, was found much more common with doctors and nurses compared to healthcare workers in other occupational categories. In terms of personal accomplishment and desensitisation subcategories, no difference was observed between occupations. Similarly, COVID-19 anxiety levels did not differ between the occupations. In conclusion, it is suggested that psychological counselling research aimed at building resilience be conducted so as to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 anxiety of healthcare workers.