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The current health crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic increases the stress and anxiety levels in some professions, including social work. The present research aimed to determine the burnout levels of social workers in Spain during the first wave of the pandemic and the predictive variables. The methodological approach used was developed from a quantitative perspective through a simple random sampling from the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) on a sample of Spanish social workers. The results showed high levels of emotional exhaustion (70.1%) and depersonalization (48.5%), although the data related to a reduced sense of personal accomplishment (36.6%) was low. The burnout level was 20.4%, a reduced record considering the values of the first two subscales. In contrast, the logistic regressions carried out showed that teleworking and psychological treatment are predictive variables of emotional exhaustion. With depersonalization, age (41-50 years) and the perception of needing psychological or psychiatric treatment in the future act as predictive variables. In critical scenarios such as a pandemic, work organizations should implement measures to reduce the high percentages of emotional exhaustion, the workload, and the dehumanization of professionals, a consequence linked to depersonalization.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, members of the State Security Forces and the Armed Forces have been mobilized to guarantee the security and mobility of the population and to support health institutions by providing personnel for care, creating field hospitals, transferring the sick and the dead, etc. The objective of this study was to determine the levels of burnout in these professionals using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) scale, both in its different subscales and its total value. The study was developed using a quantitative methodology through a simple random sample ( n = 2182). An ad hoc questionnaire was administered including variables related to: (a) socio-demographic issues, (b) subjective perceptions about their working conditions and the need for psychological and psychiatric treatment, and (c) the Death Anxiety Scale developed by Collett-Lester, and the MBI. The results show high levels of burnout (28.5%) in all its subscales: emotional exhaustion (53.8%), depersonalization (58.0%), and lack of personal development (46.3%). The logistic regression verifies a series of predictive variables that coincide in each of the subscales. These data indicate the need to implement prevention and treatment measures for workers so that their, stress, and anxiety to which they are subjected during their professional activity does not become a norm that can have negative repercussions for them, especially given the risk of new pandemic waves.

The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which produces COVID-19 disease, has revealed to political and social circles a series of needs that have not yet been met. The workers of the State Security Forces and the Armed Forces have done an extraordinary job to try to alleviate the effects that the pandemic has had on the population and to return stability to the citizenry as much as possible. In this context, the following investigation is developed based on two objectives: (PO1) to know the level of anxiety in the face of death in these professionals; (PO2) to determine the predictive variables in the above-mentioned phenomenon. Professionals from all over Spain have participated in the study (n = 2079). From a quantitative perspective, a questionnaire was developed from the Collet-Lester death anxiety scale. The results show a total level of 69.2% in the scale, as well as some higher levels about the fear of death of others (82.1%) and the fear of the process of dying of others (78.2%). On the other hand, from the binary logistic regressions, four variables are evidenced that condition the risk of suffering death anxiety: (a) certainty of needing psychological treatment in the future; (b) absence of Individual Protection Equipment (PPE); (c) high levels of Emotional Exhaustion; (d) high levels of depersonalization-these last two come from the Maslach and Jackson Burnout scale. These data show a need for training and intervention in the emotional and psychological demands of the professionals of the Armed Forces and State Security Forces, as well as the obligation to develop a continuous dialogue with the institutions they represent to foster the feeling of belonging to them. It is essential, regardless of the serious consequences that the virus has caused, to understand the psychosocial and emotional demands of enforcement agents and to improve their occupational health.

The COVID-19 health crisis has had a global effect, but the consequences in the different countries affected have been very different. In Spain, in a short period of time, health professionals went from a situation of stability to living with a working environment characterized by overcrowded hospitals, lack of individual protection equipment, non-existent or contradictory work protocols, as well as an unknown increase in mortality. Although in their professional activity health workers are closely linked to death processes, in recent months, working conditions and health emergencies have drawn an unheard of working scenario, with the stress and anxiety they may suffer when faced with the death of their patients. The present quantitative research was carried out in different hospitals in Spain on health professionals during the month of April 2020. Through the subscale of anxiety in the face of the death of others, developed by Collett-Lester, it has been verified that health professionals have had to develop their work in a context of precariousness, putting at risk both their individual and collective health, notably increasing anxiety in the face of the death of their patients. The predictive variables of this anxiety have been the absence of individual protection equipment, as well as high levels in the burnout subscales of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.