Burnout syndrome among Italian nursing staff during the COVID 19 emergency. Multicentric survey study

Aim To analyze the prevalence of Burnout defined by the MBI-GS among Italian nursing staff during the COVID-19 emergency. Introduction The recent health emergency which in the first half of 2020 has seen Italy involved in the management of patients with COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease 19), has led to further stress for hospitals both in terms of beds and in terms of workload for healthcare workers. Method A multicenter study was conducted. A convenience sample of 208 nurses participated in the study. Between March 20 and July 20, 2020, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) questionnaire was made available online by using the Google Forms platform in order to detect and measure the severity of Burnout Syndrome (BOS). Results BOS-related symptoms (medium or high score) for individual MBI-GS domains were identified in at least 68% of nurses. One hundred and sixty-one nurses (77.4%) had a risk of emotional exhaustion, 143 (68.7%) of depersonalization, and 162 (77.9%) of reduced professional accomplishment. High risk was observed among nurses who managed COVID patients at their own operating unit (RR = 1.27, p = 0.016). Severe BOS risk was observed in 146 nurses analyzed (70.2%) with an increased risk among Intensive Care nurses. Conclusions Our results suggest that the nurses during the coronavirus pandemic, had high levels of work-related suffering and were at risk of physical and emotional exhaustion. Further research should be undertaken to establish causal relationships between BOS and personal and environmental risk factors among healthcare professionals in relation to the COVID-19.