P.602 Burnout and post-traumatic stress spectrum in 110 emergency operators in Italy: a preliminary report

Background: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a severe psychiatric disorder, developed in response to the exposure to one or more traumatic events, and characterized by typical disabling symptoms, chronic course, significant deterioration in the quality of life and a high suicidal risk [1] Healthcare emergency personnel are a high-risk category for the development of PTSD, due to the repeated exposure to stressful and traumatic experiences during their work activities [2] In such healthcare professionals can frequently occur also a Burnout Syndrome, that is a condition resulting from a work-related stress-causing process, determining a combination of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a reduction of personal abilities [3] PTSD and Burnout present a complex, and not fully explored, relationship, because of the shared risk factors and overlapping symptomatic manifestations [4] Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate PTSD, post-traumatic stress spectrum symptoms, Burnout Syndrome, and their relationship, in a sample of emergency operators of a major University Hospital of Italy Methods: The study sample included 110 emergency operators (Emergency Room, Emergency Medicine, Intensive Care Unit) of the “Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana” (A O U P , Pisa, Italy) Participants were administered the Trauma and Loss Spectrum - Self Report (TALS-SR), to investigate full or partial DSM-5 PTSD and posttraumatic stress spectrum symptoms related to the work activity, and the Professional Quality of Life Scale - Revision IV (ProQOL R-IV), to examine Compassion satisfaction, Burnout and Compassion fatigue related to work We used the Kruskal-Wallis test for independent samples to evaluate the differences in ProQOL scales between subjects with full PTSD, partial PTSD and without PTSD Spearman's correlation coefficients were used to verify the possible associations between the TALS-SR symptomatological domains and the three dimensions of ProQOL Results: Fifteen subjects reported a full (15 05%) and 25 a partial (26 88%) symptomatological DSM-5 PTSD The ProQOL Compassion Satisfaction subscale mean score did not show statistically significant differences between the three groups Healthcare operators with PTSD reported higher scores with respect to individuals without PTSD in the ProQOL Burnout and the Compassion Fatigue subscales (18 6±4 9 versus 13 9±4 4, p=0 014;and 14 38±4 073 versus 9 9±3 9, p=0 001 respectively) Pearson's linear correlation between the TALS-SR symptomatological domains, and the ProQOL subscales highlighted significant relationships between Burnout and Reactions to losses or upsetting events (r=0 236, p=0 035), Re-experiencing (r=0 248, p=0 027) or Avoidance and numbing (r=0 319, p=0 004);and between Compassion fatigue and Reactions to losses or upsetting events (r=0 293, p=0 008), Re-experiencing (r=0 359, p=0 001) or Avoidance and numbing (r=0 406, p<0 001) Conclusions: This work underlines a positive correlation between Burnout Syndrome and Post-traumatic stress spectrum symptoms in emergency operators, highlighting the clinical importance of a deeper assessment of work-related trauma and post-traumatic stress manifestations in these subjects to improvethe well-being and to prevent Burnout Syndrome In this regard, increasing attention is required particularly in healthcare emergency operators due to COVID-19 pandemic, in order to strengthen the training of psychological skills aimed at mitigating the impact of a such stressful and traumatic event [5] No conflict of interest