This study aimed to assess the relationship between COVID-19 infection-related conditions and depressive symptoms among medical staff after easing the zero-COVID policy in China, and to further examine the mediating role of professional burnout.

A total of 1716 medical staff from all levels of health care institutions in 16 administrative districts of Beijing, China, were recruited to participate at the end of 2022 in this cross-sectional study. Several multiple linear regressions and mediating effects tests were performed to analyze the data.

At the beginning of the end of the zero-COVID policy in China, 91.84% of respondents reported infection with COVID-19. After adjusting for potential confounding variables, the severity of infection symptoms was significantly positively associated with high levels of depressive symptoms (β = 0.06, P < 0.001), and this association was partially mediated by professional burnout. Specifically, emotional exhaustion (95% CI, 0.131, 0.251) and depersonalization (95% CI, 0.009, 0.043) significantly mediated the association between the severity of infection symptoms and depressive symptoms.

The mental health of medical staff with more severe symptoms of COVID-19 infection should be closely monitored. Also, interventions aimed at reducing emotional exhaustion and depersonalization may effectively reduce their risk of developing depressive symptoms.

The functional approach to the study of stress resistance allows us to distinguish two blocks of resources – the “active” one, which includes the analysis of the content, conditions, subject and means of labor, and the “personal” one, which considers values, motivation and the expressiveness of personal qualities that contribute to the stress resistance (Granek, Buchman, 2020; Cross, 2019; Powell et al., 2020; Hernández-Marrero, Fradique, 2019).

The objective of our work was to study the relationship between the personal and motivational characteristics of hospice employees with the different symptoms of professional burnout as an indicator of a reduced stress resistance.

62 hospice medical employees with an average work experience of 4,5 years took part in the survey. They were asked to fill out questionnaires to diagnose the burnout symptoms, a motivational personality profile and to assess themselves by the personal semantic differential.

By the means of the procedure for determining the extreme groups (M ± σ), two groups of respondents were identified, which are characterized by different degrees of burnout symptoms. The results of the comparative analysis showed that the less advantaged respondents from the burnout perspective are focused on the life support, comfort, social status, which indicates a certain rationality in the choice of this job.

The portrait of a professionally successful hospice employee includes an orientation towards communication, social and creative activity, which is complemented with independence, confidence and decisiveness – the features that allow carrying out their work in stressful conditions and mainly in uncertain situations.

No significant relationships.