The Relationship between Academic Burnout and Psychological Capital among Second-Year Nursing Students

Background: The nursing students in the second year go in-depth in studying medical surgical and critical nursing modules which may result in growing levels of academic burnout; therefore, the need to explore psychological capital as an effective coping strategy is crucial Aim: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between academic burnout and psychological capital among second-year nursing students at Ain Shams University. Research Question: What is the relation between academic burnout and psychological capital? Setting: The study was conducted in the faculty of nursing /Ain Shams University. Subjects: A convenient sample included 187 nursing students in the second year at the mean age. Data collection tools: The first tool was, a student interviewing questionnaire to gather data related to students’ demographic and academic characteristics, the second tool was, The Maslach Burnout Inventory- Student Survey (MBI-SS) to assess the student burnout level, the third tool was the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ) to assess the student psychological capital level. Results: This study revealed that more than two-thirds of the students have a moderate level of academic burnout and more than half have a moderate level of psychological capital. Conclusion: It could be concluded that there was a highly statistically significant negative correlation between total academic burnout and total psychological capital among second-year nursing students. Recommendation: Nursing educators should focus on preventing academic burnout among students by early detection and implementing effective interventions using psychological capital as a positive coping strategy to reduce it.