Healthcare workers at higher risk of mental health problems and burnout

According to the Portuguese Laboratory for Healthy Work Environments (LABPATS), the risk of mental health problems and burnout symptoms is higher in healthcare workers who require management training in humane leadership.

The data comes from a study to be presented at the Medical Association on Wednesday that looked at more than 2,100 health workers, including nurses, doctors, operating room assistants, senior technicians, pharmacists, psychologists, administrative staff and managers.

The coordinator of this work, Tanya Gaspar, who heads LABPATS, recalls that after the pandemic, the situation worsened, then stabilized, but has not yet been able to recover to pre-COVID levels.

Tanya Gaspar, who previously led a national study into healthy working environments across different sectors of work published in May, said the findings were “worrying”.

“We need urgent action. Those people who thought that after the pandemic they would not be able to do anything and that everything would return to normal, it has been proven that this is not happening,” the specialist warned, recalling that professionals are starting to “switch off”, that “the number of people wearing a shirt has decreased” and that the private sector is becoming more competitive, as it is now investing heavily in the ability to conduct investigations.

With a PhD in healthcare management, Tanya Gaspar studied public-private partnerships (PPPs), private and public hospitals and recalls that “PPPs combined the best of both worlds because they didn’t have to look for clients, (…) customers were constant, but the quality assurance model was actually much more robust, efficient and provided for different conditions.”

“We really need to rethink everything and take urgent action in this area because health workers are at greater risk than other professionals,” he said.

In addition to the high risk associated with mental health, the study concludes that it is the younger generation of professionals (Z and Y, aged up to 40/45) who demonstrate lower work engagement and a lower perception of productivity. The worst mental health indicators are also shown by representatives of Generation Z (up to 34).

“A sick healthcare worker will affect their actions with patients, and situations can be very serious,” the researcher recalls.

On the other hand, older professionals (Generation X and baby boomers, i.e. people over 44) have a more positive perception of participation in society.

“We have noticed that students in higher education also have difficulties in the area of ​​mental health, and in this area of ​​health, there ends up being a lot of investment, a lot of overload. These young people come out of their studies quite fragile, and then they enter the work market and end up finding even more difficulties,” he explains.

Tanya Gaspar says that in terms of young people’s expectations for the world of work, “what’s happening is a defense mechanism. The door of the future is open for these young people, and it’s really all the uncertainty, the lack of happiness, well, being… it’s just negative things, and then they think, ‘I’m not going to invest my energy, my expectations, into something that feels so negative.'”

The researcher also believes that young people who do not work in the health sector are better able to cope with this problem.

“Young people value combining professional life with well-being and personal life more. Here, in the healthcare sector, apparently due to the demands of the profession, they cannot do this,” he warned.

The expert also draws attention to another aggravating factor: more than a quarter (25.4%) of health workers say they are subjected to threats or other forms of physical and psychological violence.

“Workplace harassment is higher among health workers than other professionals, where we had figures of 19%,” the researcher said, also warning of the urgency of taking action in this area.

“If I were the Minister of Health, I would be very worried,” he concluded.