Academic Burnout and Psychological Resilience Relationship in Undergraduate Nursing Students in The Eastern Province of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: there is a nursing workforce shortage in Saudi Arabia that can affect the population's health and welfare. Consequently, it is necessary to recruit additional nurses. Academic burnout is a psychological and public health issue that can lead to poor academic achievement and attrition among nursing students. Ultimately contributing to the existing shortage of nurses. Therefore, maintaining the psychological health of nursing students is essential to address Saudi Arabia's nursing shortage. Empirical evidence shows that students who possess resilience have the capacity to overcome academic stressors that can lead to academic burnout. In Saudi Arabia, nursing students' psychological resilience and academic burnout are rarely studied, and no study has investigated the relationship between the impact of resilience and academic burnout.

Aim and objectives: to investigate the relationship between academic burnout and psychological resilience among Saudi undergraduate nursing students, as well as their prevalence. Also, to determine whether academic burnout and psychological resilience are influenced by Saudi undergraduate nursing students' age, gender, GPA, and academic year.

Method: a quantitative correlation study was conducted using a convenient sample of 243 undergraduate nursing students from the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The data collection process involved the utilisation of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey, and a socio-demographic survey. These instruments were administered online. Descriptive and inferential tests were employed to assess the study data.

Results: 61% of students experienced moderate to high levels of academic burnout. 44% reported moderate emotional exhaustion, 51.9% had low cynicism, and just 8.2% exhibited high professional efficacy. In terms of nursing students’ psychological resilience, only 17.3% experienced high psychological resilience. In addition, a significant negative relationship was found between Saudi undergraduate nursing students' academic burnout and psychological resilience (r=-0.14, p<.022), as well as between emotional exhaustion, cynicism and psychological resilience, with (r=-0.348 and r=-0.528), respectively. In contrast, a positive relationship was found between students' professional efficacy and psychological resilience (r=0.596). Furthermore, academic burnout and psychological resilience levels did not differ based on students' GPAs and gender. However, differences were noted in academic burnout (p=0.034) and resilience (p=0.024) based on the student's academic year, as both increased with the student's level. Additionally, there was a significant difference in students' psychological resilience concerning age (p=0.011), while no difference was observed in academic burnout.

Conclusions and recommendations: the study concluded that resilience serves as a protective factor, as it was seen that Saudi nursing students with higher levels of resilience exhibited increased professional efficacy and reported lower levels of academic burnout. Therefore, it is imperative to implement strategies that foster resilience in nursing students' educational environments to enhance their ability to combat academic burnout. This, in turn, allows them to succeed in their academic pursuits and contribute to alleviating the nursing shortage. Ultimately, this aids Saudi Arabia in achieving the sustainable development goal of promoting population health and well-being.