The level of attrition among health care workers increased during the epidemic period and contributed to the turnover of personnel. An American study focused on the relationship between work overload and burnout and the intention to leave work among health care workers during the Corona virus, using a large national sample of health care workers in the US. The study was published at the end of March in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
More on a similar matter
While previous studies have focused on doctors and nurses, the Harvard Medical School researchers sought to better characterize and identify predictors of burnout and career intentions across different healthcare roles.
The study was carried out between April and December 2020, the peak of the Corona period, and employees at 206 large health centers in the US took part in it, and a total of 43,026 respondents participated in the sample according to this division: 35.2% doctors, 25.7% nurses, 13.3% other clinical staff (pharmacists, nurses’ aides, therapists and social workers) and 25.8% non-clinical staff (farm workers, managers, laboratory technicians and food service workers).
The total attrition rate was 49.9% and thus, according to the different sectors: 56% in nursing, 54.1% in other clinical staff, 47.3% in doctors and 45.6% in non-clinical staff.
Intentions to leave work within two years were reported by 28.7% of health care workers, with the nurses at the top of the list (41%) with reports of the highest probability of intentions to leave work. After them, a rate of 32.6% intention to leave work was found in the non-clinical team, 32.1% in the other clinical team and 24.3% intentions to leave were registered among the doctors.
The prevalence of work overload ranges from 37.1% among doctors to 47.4% among other clinical staff. Overload at work was found to be significantly related to burnout between job types.
The researchers point out that during the Corona period, tension increased among health system workers, especially among nursing assistants, medical assistants, social workers, hospital workers, women and non-white workers. The stress has been affected by the increasing work demands on all health care workers.
The study is designed to help address the well-being of multiple functionaries in the system, considering the large shortage of personnel in the health services, which affects their quality and availability, as well as the health care workers.
The researchers conclude that there are high rates of burnout and intention to leave the job among the employees of the entire health system. They recommend a proactive and active handling of the workload in each of the professions serving in the health care system and the need for a commitment to adjust the work requirements to the ability of all health care workers.
Another survey, conducted by HealthDay in February of this year, shows that about two-thirds of doctors and nurses in the US report moderate to severe burnout. 57% of doctors said that if they had to choose a profession again, they would not choose medicine and the main reasons for this, according to them, are Lack of manpower, paperwork and difficulties with medical insurance companies.