Burnout Syndrome among master’s and doctoral students in nursing

Abstract

Objective  To investigate the occurrence of burnout syndrome and to identify its predictors in master’s and doctoral students of graduate nursing programs.

Methods  A cross-sectional, descriptive, analytic study performed with 129 master’s and doctoral students from three public universities. The research instruments were a semi-structured questionnaire to characterize the participants, and the Maslach Burnout InventoryTM - Student Survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive, inferential statistics and multiple linear regressions.

Results  It was found that 11.6% of postgraduate students had signs of burnout. The variables related to their perception about the course and its requirements were those that contributed most to the occurrence of the dimensions of the syndrome. The main predictors were: dissatisfaction with the study topic, lower perceptions of social support, and leisure opportunities.

Conclusion  There were signs of burnout syndrome occurring in the studied sample; the course’s requirements played a relevant role among the syndrome predictors.