Investigation of the relationship between healthcare professionals' faciliation and burnout levels and muscle-skeleton disorders, quality of life, and pain during the pandemic period

During the pandemic period, it is a known fact that the workload and concerns of healthcare professionals continue to increase. In this process, it is possible that dentistry healthcare professionals have a higher risk of infection compared to the general population, worsening working conditions, and working under intense pressure and stress have a negative impact on fatigue, burnout and quality of life. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effects of fatigue and burnout levels felt by healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic on musculoskeletal disorders, quality of life and pain. One hundred fifty four healthcare professionals (56 men, 98 women) working at Erciyes University Faculty of Dentistry participated in the study. The data were obtained using the 'Fatigue Severity Scale', the 'Maslach Burnout Scale', the 'Cornell Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire', the 'Quality of Life Scale for Employees' and the 'Visual Analog Scale' and analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 program. It was determined that the participants mostly complained of back, neck and right shoulder pain, while musculoskeletal disorders occurred in the upper extremities of the dentists and in the lower extremities of the assistant staff. The fatigue levels of the respondents were 4,9±1,64; pain levels were calculated as 4,26±1,84. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the parameters of pain, fatigue, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, burnout and empathy fatigue; On the other hand, a negative significant relationship was determined in the personal accomplishment and professional satisfaction parameters (p<0,05). Considering that musculoskeletal disorders, quality of life and pain levels increased in dentistry healthcare professionals in the COVID-19 pandemic, and this situation triggered fatigue and burnout, we believe that taking preventive and regulatory measures and health policy arrangements will be beneficial.