Experienced professional stress and burnout among emergency nurses in ambulance during the COVID-19 pandemic

The relevance of the topic: The topic is relevant and new because all the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic at the moment. The work of emergency medics is one of the most stressful and especially now, when the workload is increased, work conditions are dangerous. The workers, whose work‘s essence and content consist of frequent and intense contacts with other people, suffer from severe mental strain that eventually can occur as emotional exhaustion, the loss of interest to work, communication disorders, deteriorating physical well-being. There is particularly high risk that it all could lead to higher than usual occupational stress burnout syndrome when there is shortage of staff and the flows of patients are increasing. The aim of the research: to analyse the emergency nurses who work at emergency ambulance stations, occupational stress and burnout at the time of COVID-19 pandemic. The methods of the research: 1. analysis of scientific literature. 2. quantitative research by using a standardized written questionnaire. The results. The research revealed that between experienced burnout and stress, there is positive and significant connection. It also showed that emergency nurses burnout and stress significations are higher than average. By the way, the emergency nurses stress is determined by the burnout that is caused by work with patients. The level of experienced burnout and stress depends on such demographic characteristics as sex, age, work experience and workload. Conclusions. The scientific literature review revealed a lot of different opinions and submitted definitions of stress, so generally it can be defined as organism reaction to various unpleasant emotional experiences. The research showed that the majority of the respondents suffer from high level of somatic and cognitive stress, which can lead to the fact that the majority of the respondents experience higher than average stress. The majority of the respondents experience burnout, caused by work with patients. From all the nursing specialists, working at emergency ambulance stations, that took part in the research, two thirds experience occupational burnout. Emergency nurses, working at emergency ambulance stations, stress is significantly influenced by burnout caused by work with patients. Meanwhile, personal burnout and occupational burnout do not have significant influence