Burnout syndrome in nursing students: An observational study

Background: Academic burnout appears attributable to work and academic overload and may negatively affect learning and care quality during clinical clerkship. Objectives: To evaluate the presence of burnout syndrome in nursing students and to detect the main stressors that occur during clinical clerkship. Design: Observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study carried out between January and July 2017. Settings and participants: Second-, third- and fourth-year nursing students at Jaume I University (Universitat Jaume I) (Spain) (n = 126). Methods: The KEZKAK questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory Student Survey were used when carrying out the data collection; sociodemographic and clinical clerkship variables were also collected. Descriptive and bivariate analyses of these instruments' variables were performed. Results: No student manifested high levels of depersonalisation or low personal accomplishment. Moreover, depersonalisation was found to increase as the academic year progressed (p = 0.027). The most stressful factors were Helplessness and Uncertainty (m = 3.61, sd = 0.345) and Confusion of Medication (m = 2.50, sd = 0.754). The female subsample showed higher stress levels due to multiple factors, such as Lack of Competence (p = 0.001) and Having to Give Bad News (p = 0.01). Conclusion: This study found that its sample did not meet the criteria indicating the presence of burnout syndrome. In addition, the main stressors affecting nursing students during clinical clerkship were identified