69% of family doctors in Catalonia are exhausted and 43% stressed after the fifth wave
A study carried out jointly by the Catalan Society of Family and Community Medicine (CAMFiC) and the Institute for Research in Primary Care (IDIAP Jordi Gol) analyzes the emotional impact of the COVID19 pandemic on family doctors in Catalonia.
This is an online survey of a representative sample of approximately 600 family doctors from Catalonia who are members of the CAMFiC, in the months of June and July 2021, precisely coinciding with the sudden outbreak of the fifth wave of COVID-19.
Results
79.2% of the sample are women and the average age is 47.1 years. 94% work in Primary Care, 98% in the public sector and 96% in assistance tasks.
The main results show an almost unanimous perception (95%) of increased workload and of taking on new tasks (89%) and logically of stress associated with these new situations. There is also concern about contracting COVID-19, not only because of their own contagion (43%) but above all because of the risk of contagion from family members (79%). Resilience factors have also been observed: more than 80% trust their own professional ability to get out of the pandemic and l majority (67%) assume the risks inherent to work, due to the commitment to the profession.
The participants answered the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)¹ questionnaire, which reports on three dimensions of burnout: emotional and physical exhaustion; depersonalization (feelings of negativism or cynicism towards work and patients), and personal fulfillment at work.
More than two thirds of the participating physicians have high levels of emotional exhaustion (69%), while 47% have a high level of depersonalization, 40% have low level of personal fulfillment and 26.5% present simultaneous affectationof exhaustion, depersonalization and little personal accomplishment at work.
They were also administered the DASS-21² questionnaire that measures the degree of depression, anxiety and stress. A quarter of the participants have depression, at least moderate, while 11% have severe or very severe depression. More than a third suffer from at least moderate anxiety, and 14% are at levels of severe or very severe anxiety. The concept of stress includes hyperarousal, agitation, irritability and impatience, and the results show that more than 40% present clinically significant levels of stress.
For the authors of the work³ (IDIAP researchers Jordi Gol and CAMFiC) “a change in working conditions is perceived with a greater workload, new tasks or concern about the risk of contagion, but at the same time there are resilience factors such as professionalism or confidence in one's own abilities”. However, the researchers point out that “the results should alert us because, although burnout has always been present in the health professions, in the context of the pandemic, prevalences never seen before have been observed.< /strong> Burnout includes a stressed emotional state, with physical exhaustion and psychological overflow, which can lead to attitudes of off the hook towards work and patients, and loss of satisfaction with one's own work< /strong>. Burnout is relevant because it reflects the doctor's discomfort, but also because it can compromise the efficiency of their work and the quality of care”.
Given this context, they propose “proactively monitoring the psychological state of family doctors and facilitating access to psychological help. Fostering resilience with strategies focused on self-care can be useful, but changes in the organization, the work environment and working conditions are also necessary. On the other hand, it is necessary to carry out longitudinal studies to evaluate the psychological impact of the pandemic over time, and to evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of the preventive or therapeutic interventions that are proposed and the best way to implement them.
The results of this study have been presented in the framework of the XXVIII Congress of the CAMFiC that is being held in Girona.
