Stress, Learning Motivation, and Academic Burnout among Student Nurses: A Correlational Study

Attending nursing school is challenging. Students enrolled in a nursing program often complain of being academically burned out. As an educator, seeing, interacting with, and teaching learners suffering from burnout is tough. Nurse educators must be aware of this issue and act toward its resolution. Stress (Ma et al., 2022) and learning motivation (Mannerstrom et al., 2024) are variables associated with academic burnout. However, a gap exists in that current studies focused on assessing these factors from countries outside the Philippines and only in the context of public or private educational institutions but not on both. Therefore, this article aims to close the gap by elucidating how stress and motivation are connected with academic burnout in both public and private college nursing students. The inquiry was participated in by 719 nursing students from 4 private and state universities in the Philippines, utilizing modified standardized questionnaires and a 5-point Likert scale. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and linear regression were also employed as statistical tools. The results revealed that student nurses were experiencing high levels of stress (M=3.89, SD=.977), academic motivation (M=4.25, SD=.798), and academic burnout (M=3.65, SD=1.10), implying that nursing learners studying in universities suffered from burnout and academic stress but were highly motivated. In addition, it was found that academic burnout, stress, and external motivation are significantly related. Improving the quality of nursing education requires first identifying the causes of academic burnout among nursing students. Furthermore, policymakers, administrators, and educators can develop and implement regulations that advocate for healthier school life by understanding students' challenges.