For nursing students
Study summary
This study examined whether resilience changes the relationship between academic burnout and psychological health among 218 second-year nursing students at the University of Murcia in Spain.
Students completed a questionnaire battery. Resilience was measured with the CD-RISC 10, burnout with the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and psychological health with the GHQ-12. A resilience score describes the construct under study; it is not a treatment or proof that a student will cope well in every situation.
The authors reported significant relationships between resilience and overall burnout, emotional exhaustion, self-efficacy and psychological health. They also reported that all three burnout dimensions were linked with psychological health in the predicted way. The abstract does not provide coefficients, confidence intervals or the direction of every relationship.
Regression analysis indicated that resilience moderated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and psychological health. That is narrower than saying resilience training prevents burnout: the researchers measured existing characteristics and did not test a curriculum or wellbeing intervention.
The abstract does not identify a particular program, screening policy or resilience exercise. Transfer beyond this sample must account for the single university, one program year and questionnaire-based measures.
Original publication
Source abstract and study details
Read the source abstract
The objective of this study was to analyse the role of resilience in the dimensions of academic burnout syndrome and psychological health in a sample of nursing students. A battery of questionnaires was administered to 218 nursing students, all of whom were in the second year of their degree at the University of Murcia (Spain). The applied protocol used the CD-RISC 10 scale for the measurement of resilience, the burnout scale MBI, and the GHQ-12 questionnaire to assess psychological health. The findings showed a significant relationship between resilience and burnout, emotional exhaustion, and self-efficacy, as well as with psychological health. Moreover, three burnout dimensions were found to be significantly linked to psychological health in the way we had predicted. Regression analysis indicated the moderating role of resilience on psychological health in emotionally exhausting situations. We conclude that the psychological characteristic resilience moderated the effect of emotional exhaustion on the psychological health of the students. The practical implications of the results are discussed in order to introduce measures for the proper training of nursing students for professional practice; we also make several suggestions for future research in this field.
Reviewed findings
Main findings
- The sample comprised 218 second-year nursing students at the University of Murcia in Spain.
- Resilience was significantly related to overall burnout, emotional exhaustion, self-efficacy and psychological health; the abstract does not provide the direction or magnitude of each relationship.
- Regression analysis indicated that resilience moderated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and psychological health.
For educators
Teaching and appraisal notes
García-Izquierdo and colleagues studied 218 second-year nursing students at the University of Murcia using CD-RISC 10 for resilience, MBI for burnout and GHQ-12 for psychological health. Educational Psychology published the article in volume 38, issue 8.
The paper offers a focused example of why correlation and moderation are not interchangeable. It reports significant relationships among resilience, burnout dimensions and psychological health, then identifies a regression result in which resilience moderated the effect of emotional exhaustion on psychological health. This interaction must not be turned into a causal claim about resilience-building programs.
All participants were in the same year of one Spanish nursing degree, and all focal constructs came from questionnaires. The abstract gives no effect sizes, confidence intervals, demographic breakdown, response rate or follow-up period. Those omissions prevent assessment of practical magnitude.
Critical appraisal
Limitations
- All participants came from the second year of one nursing degree at one Spanish university.
- The study used questionnaires for resilience, burnout and psychological health; no behavioural, academic or clinical outcome is reported in the abstract.
- The abstract does not report effect sizes, confidence intervals, participant demographics, response rate or follow-up.
Classroom use
Discussion Questions
- In the reported regression model, how does resilience as a moderator differ from resilience as a mediator?
- What information beyond statistical significance would you need to judge whether the moderation result matters educationally?
- How might studying only second-year students at one university affect transfer to another program?
- What outcomes and comparison group would a future study need to test a resilience-focused education program?