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

963

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.

General Information

Keywords: depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, professional burnout, young doctors-residents, COVID-19, distress and its factors, alexithymia, loneliness, perfectionism

Journal rubric: Empirical Researches

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2021290202

For citation: Kholmogorova A.B., Rakhmanina A.A., Suroegina A.Y., Mikita O.Y., Petrikov S.S., Roy A.P. Mental Health and Professional Burnout among Residents During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Situational and Psychological Factors. Konsul'tativnaya psikhologiya i psikhoterapiya = Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy, 2021. Vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 9–47. DOI: 10.17759/cpp.2021290202. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Alla B. Kholmogorova, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Leading Researcher, Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry (A Branch of the National Medical Research Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology), Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5194-0199, e-mail: kholmogorova@yandex.ru

Anastasiia A. Rakhmanina, senior medical psychologist, junior researcher, N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7870-402X, e-mail: rakhmanina.a@mail.ru

Anastasiia Y. Suroegina, PhD in Psychology, Senior Researcher of the Department of Acute Poisoning and Psychosomatic Disorders, N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine, Clinical Psychologist, Center of Rehabilitation “Overcoming”, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2616-8923, e-mail: suroegina@gmail.com

Olesya Y. Mikita, PhD in Psychology, Head of Educational and Clinical Department, Researcher, Department of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation, N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6697-1625, e-mail: mikita-o@yandex.ru

Sergey S. Petrikov, Doctor of Medicine, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Director, Sklifosovsky Clinical and Research Institute for Emergency Medicine, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3292-8789, e-mail: petrikovss@sklif.mos.ru

Anita P. Roy, Medical Psychologist, Junior Researcher, The N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency medicine, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7070-4973, e-mail: anita010101@yandex.ru

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