Force Fellow - Mental health and burnout syndrome among postgraduate students in medical and multidisciplinary residencies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: Protocol for a prospective cohort study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic imposes a high degree of physical, psychological and social stress on health professionals, including postgraduate students in medical and multidisciplinary residencies. This stress is associated with the intense fear of occupational exposure to the virus. These professionals are at risk of becoming physically and mentally ill not only due to the infection but also due to prolonged exposure to multidimensional stress and continued work overload. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of symptoms that indicate mental disorders and burnout syndrome, as well as to determine risk factors for burnout among postgraduate students in medical and multidisciplinary residencies in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This will be a prospective cohort study with parallel groups. Recruitment will take place from July to August/2020. The sample size will be of, at least, 1.144 participants. The research instruments that will be used are the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Brief Resilient Coping Scale and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI).Two waves of data collection will occur: the first wave will included data related to sample characterization and psychosocial evaluation; the final wave will occur 12 weeks later and will include an evaluation of the incidence of burnout as well as correlations with the potential predictive factors collected in the first wave. Additionally, data regarding work withdrawal will be collected. RESULTS: The project has data collection in progress. Recruitment started on July 29, 2020. Analysis of the results will begin after the initial inclusion of all participants. CONCLUSIONS: By evaluating the prevalence of symptoms suggestive of mental disorders and burnout among postgraduate students of medical and multidisciplinary residencies in Brazil, we aim to understand the impact of dealing with this pandemic and contribute to planning measures that can alleviate this problem. CLINICALTRIAL: The study is registered in the Research Ethics Committee from the Medical School (CEP/FM) of the University of Brasilia (CAAE: 33493920.0.0000.5558). INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT: DERR1-10.2196/24298.