KUALA LUMPUR – A study conducted on 893 medical frontliners found personal-related burnout is at 53%, and most prevalent among pharmacists and medical officers at the district level.
While work-related burnout is at 39.1% where it is most common among assistant environmental health officers and laboratory staffers.
The study also found that 17.4% reported patient-related burnout among paramedics and medical officers in government hospitals.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that it will provide unrecorded leave with the consent of the head of department for those involved in the handling of the pandemic.
Many of the respondents said they do not have psychosocial support at the workplace.
Among the triggers listed are:
- high workload;
- the uncertainty of the pandemic period;
- exchange and adaptation processes to various standard operating procedures (SOPs);
- disrupted career plans; and
- difficulty balancing family and career.
To address the situation, the ministry has initiated periodical mental health screening, and providing psychological first aid and referrals to counsellors or psychiatrists.
In addition, a pre-deployment session will be held for medical frontliners and volunteers – in which they will be given a mental health alert card for self-assessment.
It added that job rotation will be observed and there will be a psychosocial team stationed at low-risk quarantine and treatment centres such as MAEPS in Serdang to provide counselling and intervention to staffers and patients.
The ministry admitted that burnout is among the main issues faced by medical frontliners as their work commitments exceeds 100% over a long period of time. – The Vibes, June 27, 2021
