Burnout-related factors in healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak: Evidence from Serbia

Abstract

Burnout is one of the phenomena that occurs in situations of increased mental and emotional exhaustion at work, so it is expected that healthcare professionals will experience it more often in a situation of increased stress amid the outbreak of COVID-19. The aim of this national cross-sectional survey study was to examine the levels of burnout and the relationship between burnout syndrome, healthcare workers’ resilience, and different sociodemographic and work-related variables during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Serbia. The sample included 398 healthcare professionals who actively worked with patients during the COVID-19 outbreak. The primary contribution of our study was that we identified moderate to high levels of burnout among healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, and pharmacists) in Serbia during the COVID-19 outbreak, but also significant negative correlations between these levels of burnout and resilience, as well as statistically significant factors related to burnout such as the number of working hours per day, age, length of service, and profession.