More than 40% of Portuguese physiotherapists are in a situation of physical exhaustion and psychological fatigue due to the challenges posed by the current pandemic in the workplace.
The number is advanced by a nationwide study, developed by researchers from the CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) and the Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic of Porto.
The objective of this unprecedented work, coordinated by Ivone Duarte (FMUP/CINTESIS) and Carla Serrão (Polytechnic of Porto), was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on health professionals, assessing the role of resilience in depression, anxiety, and burnout.
“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vital importance of physical therapists in the rehabilitation of patients, from the acute phase to long-term follow-up. Therefore, it was important to understand how the physiotherapists were from a psycho-emotional point of view”, explains Cristina Jácome, a researcher at FMUP/CINTESIS.
Of the 511 physical therapists who answered the online questionnaire in May, 42% admit to being in “burnout”, a percentage higher than that of other national and international studies, which point to 10 to 30%.
In this sample, 52% of physical therapists treat patients in person, 35% are inpatient services, and 18% work directly with patients infected with SARS-Cov-2. Half of the physiotherapists are working in the private sector.
The research team advances some reasons for the phenomenon. Namely, the involvement in emotionally demanding work situations, a lesser capacity to adapt to stress, and the contact with COVID-19 patients.
“When we tried to understand what characteristics were contributing to the state of fatigue and exhaustion, we found that the most relevant factors were lower resilience, higher levels of depression and stress, and rehabilitating patients with COVID-19”, says the researcher, who is also a physiotherapist.
Cristina Jácome also warns of other problems that affect physiotherapists, in particular economic problems, lower productivity, reduced quality of health care provided, a greater probability of occurrence of adverse events, the increased time required for the recovery of patients, and greater dissatisfaction, with all the consequences that result for the Health System.
In this regard, the researcher understands that “it is crucial and urgent that mitigation strategies are implemented to promote the health of physiotherapists and, consequently, to guarantee the quality of the services provided”.
Bearing in mind that psychological resilience is proven to be a protective factor, Cristina Jácome calls on institutions to offer resilience development programs to these professionals, in particular, those who are directly intervening with COVID-19 patients”.