Anesthesiologists during the COVID-19 pandemic: Heroes of the front lines or collateral damage?: Anesthesiologists during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Anesthesiologists are ranked among health professionals that are most often affected by burnout syndrome. A critical view is needed to interpret data published about burnout syndrome among anesthesiologists, keeping in mind differences in methodology. This also causes difficulty to estimate the prevalence of overall burnout, no matter which professional group is studied. Safe anesthesia and surgical care are not available when needed for 5 billion of the world's 7 billion people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, even the countries with the highest numbers of Anesthesia Providers faced anesthesia shortages due to significant workload increases. The highly specialized, multidisciplinary treatment of patients during the pandemic, an increased risk of coronavirus infection, staff shortages, and a lack of equipment imposes a significant physical and cognitive burden on anesthesiologists. Burnout syndrome among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic is a critical topic. Health care workers and anesthesiologists worldwide reported relevant, work-related psychological pressure, burnout, and somatic symptoms. This fact requires attention as previous studies showed that emotional distress is associated with a long-lasting effect on professionals' health. Increasing the number of anesthesiologists, harmonizing regional, international, and world standards in education and patient safety while addressing the quality of life of anesthesiologists should be our goal, set by The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), so that by 2030, safe anesthesia will be available to all the people in the world.

Keywords

• aneshesiologists
• burnout
• covid-19
• pandemic