Burnout among Physicians in Egypt during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Physician burnout is considered a great public health problem, and the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic made it worse. The pandemic put several physical and emotional stressors on the frontline healthcare providers leading to increased burnout. \nAim of work: was to assess the prevalence of burnout and its predictors among frontline physicians in Egypt during COVID 19 pandemic and evaluating the relation between burnout, its subscales, and psychosomatic symptoms. \nMaterials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study assessed 503 Egyptian physicians for burnout between the 26th of March 2020 to the 1st of June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic weeks, using the online form of Maslach Burnout Inventory [MBI]. \xa0 \nResults: 72.8% of study subjects were classified as having a high burnout level and 26.0% as having an average level. 62.2% and 62.4% of studied physicians had high emotional exhaustion and depersonalization levels, respectively, and 43.5 % had low personal achievement levels. Dealing with critical cases, dealing with suspected cases of COVID 19, the number of shifts per month, and the presence of psychosomatic disorders were the significant positive predictors for total burnout score while dealing with critical cases, the number of shifts per month, and the presence of psychosomatic disorders were the significant positive predictors for emotional exhaustion. Significantly higher scores of psychosomatic disorders were observed among physicians with a high level of burnout, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization subscales. \nConclusion: It could be concluded that dealing with critical cases, suspected and confirmed cases of COVID 19 were significant positive predictors for total burnout score. The high levels of overall burnout and its subscales indicate the need for specific intervention programs to cope with the work-related stressors.