Professional burnout of Ukrainian rehabilitation professionals in the context of military conflict: a cross-sectional study

Introduction Ukrainian rehabilitation professionals work under challenging conditions with military and civilian casualties resulting from the military conflict. Our study aims to examine the degree of professional burnout (PB) among Ukrainian rehabilitation professionals in the context of military conflict. Methods A cross-sectional study of rehabilitation professionals in Ukraine was conducted using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. A total of 112 rehabilitation professionals participated in the study: physical therapists (59.82%), occupational therapists (10.71%), their assistants (22.32%), and physicians in physical and rehabilitation medicine (7.14%). The analysis considered sex, position, work experience, and the region where the facility was located. Results The data show that rehabilitation professionals demonstrate a moderate level of PB across all scales. No statistically significant differences were found in emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP) or professional accomplishment (PA) scores among groups by the categories studied. But a cluster analysis of individual profiles identified 3 groups with varying levels of PB: the first group exhibited high EE and DP scores and low PA scores; the second group showed moderate EE and DP scores and low PA scores; and the third group had low scores across all three scales. Conclusions The average EE, DP, PA scale scores indicate that rehabilitation professionals generally demonstrate a moderate level of burnout during military conflict. However, the analysis of individual PB profiles reveals that 50–65% of Ukrainian rehabilitation professionals exhibit high or moderate levels of PB in the context of military conflict.