Causes of burnout in nursing seniors: A mixed methods study

In recent years, the issue of burnout in newly graduated and student nurses has become an increasing interest of researchers. Burnout seriously affects the behavior, health, life and relationships of individuals.

This research was conducted to investigate the causes of burnout in nursing senior students in depth.

This research, based on mixed method, was carried out with a sequential exploratory design.

The study was conducted with 148 nursing students in their last year at a university in the Marmara Region of Türkiye.

Data were collected with Personal Information Form, The Burnout Measure Short Version (BMS) and Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Form (MBI-SF) between March and April 2022. Qualitative interviews were conducted face-to-face with 16 students determined by criterion sampling method between May and June 2022. A semi-structured interview form was used to collect qualitative data. Descriptive statistics (number, percentage, mean, standard deviation) were used for the analysis of quantitative data. Thematic analysis was performed for qualitative data.

The mean BMS total score for the sample group was 4.50. MBI-SF sub-dimension mean scores; It is in the form of exhaustion (16.52), depersonalization (12.66) and competence (12.41). According to the scores of nursing senior students from BMS, it was determined that 22.3 % (n = 33) had burnout, 23 % (n = 34) had a serious burnout problem, and 28.4 % (n = 42) needed professional help as soon as possible. In addition, three main themes emerged as a result of the thematic analysis: (i) Effects of Burnout, (ii) Factors Affecting Burnout, (iii) Ways to Cope with Burnout.

It was determined that one of the five nursing students was in danger of burnout. The prevalence of burnout in nursing senior students was 73.7 %. Besides, it was determined that the problems experienced in the student's nursing education and professional practices, the pandemic process, financial concerns, family-related situations, not finding time for social activities, and future anxiety were the factors causing burnout.