Effective Interventions for Nursing Student Burnout: A Scoping Review

Burnout in nursing students negatively impacts students' health, decreases academic success, increases attrition, and threatens the quality of patient care.

To identify empiric research evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to prevent nursing student burnout.

This scoping review examined the PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar databases to identify original studies evaluating burnout interventions in nursing students.

Of the 258 studies identified in the primary search, 208 were screened and 29 were selected for full-text review. Five quantitative reports and 1 qualitative study met the inclusion criteria. Effective interventions included recreational music-making, mindfulness-based and resilience education, integral-caring-holistic-science curriculum, Acceptance and Commitment Training, and progressive muscle relaxation. Statistically significant reductions in burnout were reported in all 5 of the quantitative studies.

This review demonstrates a need for further research. Burnout interventions should be embedded in the nursing curriculum to yield a more sustainable profession.