An investigation of psychosocial factors that affect the burnout levels of healthcare workers during the pandemic process

The aim of this study is to examine the psychosocial factors that affect the burnout levels of health workers, Covid-19-related anxiety and the relationship between anxiety and burnout during the pandemic process were investigated. The sample of this study includes all healthcare professionals working at Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine except the cafeteria staff. They are 416 healthcare workers aged 19-63 (Mean= 35.51±9.38) and 284 of them are (61.8%) females, 132 (31.7%) males and 2 (0.5%) of them rejected to specify their gender. 70 of the participants are doctors, 147 are nurses, 13 are anesthesia and radiology technicians, 40 are laboratory workers, 7 are paramedics, 57 are secretaries, and 84 are cleaning staff. While the participants were selected randomly, a personal information form consisting of 33 open and close-ended questions, the 5-item Corona virus anxiety scale, the Maslach Burnout Scale consisting of 23 items and the Beck Burnout Scale consisting of 21 items were applied face-to-face. Data that were obtained from scales were evaluated with SPSS Version in 21.00 Windows package program. The results of the study suggest that there is a positive and meaningful relationship among emotional burnout, depersonalization, Covid-19 related anxiety and Beck anxiety (p < .001). However, the results also suggest that the personal success variable has a negative and meaningful relationship with the aforementioned variables (p < .001). Additionally, having anxiety and Covid-19 related anxiety, being a female, being young, being single, having children, having Covid-19 disease, having a chronic illness, living away from family during the pandemic and the increase in the weekly workload have been found to have effects that increase burnout levels. When we look at the relationship between the professions of the healthcare workers and burnout, we see that there is not a meaningful differentiation in emotional burnout, depersonalization and personal success between groups (p > .05). Anxiety levels of healthcare workers, who are in the most risky group for burnout, have increased during the pandemic period, along with their workload and the risk of illness they are exposed to. Therefore, it has been concluded that measures to protect and increase the psychological resilience of employees are important in order to prevent burnout.