Fear of Covid-19 and burnout among healthcare providers in Malaysia: Is resilience a missing link?

• Main Authors: Ching, Siew-Mooi, Thurasamy, Ramayah, Cheong, Ai Theng, Yee, Anne, Lim, Poh Ying, Ismail, Irmi Zarina, Lee, Kai Wei, Ng, Jun Ying, Abdul Rahim, Rofina, Mohd Noor, Mohd Khairi, Cheng, Chang Li, Mohd Nazan, Ahmad Iqmer Nashriq, Md Salleh, Hafizah, Hassan, Noor Hasliza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Putra Malaysia 2023
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/107992/1/2023072016324537_MJMHS_1012.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/107992/; https://medic.upm.edu.my/jurnal_kami/volume_19_2023/mjmhs_vol19_no_4_july_2023-74072
• Institution: Universiti Putra Malaysia

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers have been in great fear due to the high risk of contracting COVID-19 infection at any time. This study aimed to determine the mediating role of resilience on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and burnout in primary care healthcare providers in Malaysia. Methods: This was an online cross-sectional study involving 1280 healthcare providers aged 18 years and older from 30 government primary care clinics in Malaysia. We used the COVID-19 Fear Scale, the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory Scale, and the Short Brief Resilience Scale to collect data from the respondents. Smart-PLS was used to perform mediation analysis. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 36 years old and mean duration of working experience was 11 years. The majority of the respondents were female (82.4%) and Malays (82.3%). The study population consisted of nurses (47.4%), doctors (26%), medical assistants (11.9), healthcare assistant (7.1%), medical laboratory technicians (6.4%) and drivers(1.3).The results show that fear of COVID-19 positively predicts burnout. According to the results, resilience mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and all the three burnout domains, namely personal burnout (β=0.175,p<0.001), work-related burnout (β=0.175,p<0.001) and client-related burnout (β=0.172,p<0.001). Additionally, resilience reduces the impact of COVID-19 fear on the three domains of burnout. Conclusion: Our study has reported a mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and burnout.