Medical Staff Work Burnout and Willingness to Work during COVID-19 Pandemic Situation in Pakistan

Hosp Top. 2022 Jul-Sep;100(3):123-131. doi: 10.1080/00185868.2021.1927922. Epub 2021 May 18.

Abstract

Medical staff is vital for helping society through a health crisis, human-made or natural disaster, and pandemic. This study aims to investigate the medical staff's work-related burnout during Covid-19 and their willingness to work when they are most needed. The cross-sectional design was used, and an online survey was conducted through snowball sampling. Sample comprised on 250 participants (male = 89 & female= 161). The study's inclusion criteria were that only those medical staff of different hospitals was approached to collect data performed inwards isolated for Covid-19 treatment corona isolation wards. Maslach burnout inventory (MBI-HSS) and willingness to work (WTW) tools were used to collect data. Descriptive and Partial least square analysis was utilized to evaluate the relationships. The Coefficient of determination or R-Square value was 0.299, which means 29.9% or 30% of the work burnout variation was due to the impact of emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. Perceived danger, Role Competence, Self-Efficacy, and Sense of duty significantly impacted the willingness to work. Despite the workload and perceived risk, 42.6% of participants agreed to work if their department had to need their services, while 55.2% of participants agreed to work whether their department asked them or not. Government and hospital management should adopt a proactive and positive response during the pandemic to eradicate the employee stress and adopt adequate steps to improve the willingness to work with medical staff.

Keywords: Emotional exhaustion; depersonalization; partial least square; personal accomplishment.

MeSH terms

  • Burnout, Professional* / epidemiology
  • Burnout, Professional* / psychology
  • COVID-19 Drug Treatment*
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Medical Staff
  • Pakistan / epidemiology
  • Pandemics
  • Surveys and Questionnaires