Abstract

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020, many essential healthcare workers (HCWs) and first responders were exposed to extreme numbers of sick and dying patients daily (Maunder et al., 2021). In December 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, infected people were dying at alarming rates, with over 350,000 deaths in the United States alone (United States Census Bureau, 2022). About three years later, in May 2023, the federal government retracted the executive order which declared COVID-19 a public health emergency (Jared, 2023). Although COVID-19 is no longer identified as a public health emergency, SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes the COVID-19 disease, continues to impose a significant threat to individuals’ psychological and emotional functioning (Jared, 2023). Prior to the pandemic, there was consensus within the literature that HCWs and first responders were at an increased risk of experiencing burnout and adverse psychological outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders related to the healthcare profession (Amanullah & Shankar, 2020); now, they presumably are at an even higher risk due to the unprecedented job-related and personal challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic (Jared, 2023; Maunder et al., 2021). Based on the literature, two groups of HCWs and first responders working throughout COVID-19 in the United States emerged. There was the group of HCWs and first responders who experienced higher levels of burnout and the group of HCWs and first responders who experienced lower levels of burnout. The purpose of this present study was to further examine and understand the set of characteristics possessed by HCWs and first responders who experienced higher levels of burnout, “High Burnout Group” (HBG), and the set of characteristics possessed by HCWs and first responders who experienced lower levels of burnout, “Low Burnout Group” (LBG). It was hypothesized that HCWs and first responders of the “HBG” would experience higher levels of stress, depression, moral injury, and secondary trauma than those of the “LBG.” Specifically, this study measured burnout via the Abbreviated Maslach Burnout Inventory (aMBI), affective distress via the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), depression via the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), moral injury via the Moral Injury Symptom Scale- Healthcare Professional Version (MISS-HP), and secondary trauma via the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS). Resilience, defined as the ability to bounce back or recover from stress, is considered a valuable coping mechanism when working through various psychological, emotional, or professional-related stressors ((American Psychological Association [APA], 2023). Thus, it was additionally hypothesized that HCWs and first responders within the “HBG” would report lower levels of resilience than those in the “LBG.” Resilience was measured via the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). This study assessed 157 participants, all of whom worked as essential HCWs or first responders throughout the COVID-19 pandemic across the United States. While the hypotheses were not supported, the results raise interesting questions suggesting a more complex, nuanced relationship between burnout and resilience that may lead to the development of more effective support services for essential HCWs and first responders in this ongoing pandemic and future pandemics to come. Keywords: burnout, resilience, COVID-19, pandemic, healthcare workers, first responders, essential workers

First Advisor

June Chisholm

Document Type

ETD

Date of Award

7-22-2024

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