Mental Health and Professional Burnout among Residents During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Situational and Psychological Factors

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study of the level and factors of mental malad- justment and professional burnout of medical residents undergoing training at the Training Center of N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 110 first and second year residents (30 men and 80 women; mean age — 25.1±2.32), both working in the COVID-19 “red zone” and helping other patients. The follow- ing methods were used to assess symptoms and factors of mental maladjustment and professional burnout: Beck Depression and Anxiety Scales (Beck et al., 1988; 1996), Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981), PTSD Checklist for DSM 5 (PSL-5; Weathers et al., 2013) Distress Thermometer (Holland, Bultz, 2007), UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell et al., 1978) Three-Factor Perfectionism Inventory (Garanyan et al., 2018) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Taylor et al., 2003). According to the data, 43% of young doctors noted symptoms of depression of moderate and high severity, suicidal thoughts were present in 10%, symptoms of heightened anxiety in 30%, and more than a half (55%) had critically high rates of symptoms of post-traumatic stress. About a quarter of the respondents showed high rates of general distress (24%) and professional burnout in all three of its as- pects (emotional exhaustion — 21%, depersonalization — 23%, and personal ac- complishment — 22%). Most residents associated distress with difficulties in com- bining work and study and fear for the quality of education during the pandemic. Social support was noted as a factor in coping with stress. A series of regression analyzes showed the importance of the contribution of the experience of loneli- ness, as well as high rates of perfectionism and alexithymia, to mental distress and professional burnout of residents.