[Burnout-related symptoms among Italian ICU's staff during the COVID-19 emergency. A multicentric survey study].

Abstract

Aim: to analyze the prevalence of Burnout defined by the MBI-GS among Italian Intensive Care (ICU) staff during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Method: a multicentric study was conducted. A sample of 197 ICU health professionals (135 nurses and 62 physicians) participated in the study. Between 25 March and 15 May 2020, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) questionnaire was made available online by using the Google Forms platform in order to detect and measure the severity ofBurnout Syndrome (BOS).

Results: BOS-related symptoms (medium or high score) for individual MBI-GS domains have been identified in at least 69% of ICU healthcare professionals. Ninety-eight healthcare professionals (49.7%) had a moderate-high risk of emotional exhaustion, 108 (54.8%) ofdepersonalization, and 102 (51.8%) of reduced professional accomplishment. A high risk of emotional exhaustion, a moderate risk of depersonalization(56.3% vs 32.2%) and a moderate risk for reduced professional accomplishment (60.7% vs 24.2%) were observed among nursing staff. A strong association between increase in age and increase of the Burnout risk in ICU's staff was observed.

Conclusions: the results suggest that ICU staff during the coronavirus pandemic, had high levels of work-related suffering and were at risk of physical and emotional exhaustion. However, further research should be undertaken to establish causal relationships between BOS and personal and environmental risk factors among healthcare professionals in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak.