THE INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND ACADEMIC STUDY VARIABLES ON BURNOUT REPORTED BY AUSTRALIAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY STUDENTS

Background: Burnout syndrome has been characterised as a process of chronic responses to occupational stress in certain groups of workers. However, this phenomenon has also been reported in other participant groups including... [ view full abstract ]

Background: Burnout syndrome has been characterised as a process of chronic responses to occupational stress in certain groups of workers. However, this phenomenon has also been reported in other participant groups including university students. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS) has been used to evaluate burnout in this sample group and is composed of exhaustion, cynism and efficacy subscales. As far as we know, no studies considered any factors associated with this syndrome involving occupational therapy (OT) students. The aim was to determine if OT student demographic and academic variables were related to the MBI-SS subscales.

Methods: 225 Australian undergraduate OT students from Monash University completed the MBI-SS. Pearson and Spearman's Rank Order correlations were completed.

Results: Exhaustion was associated with age, year level of enrolment and hours of direct time spent working on OT studies; cynism was associated with year level of enrolment, hours of indirect time and type of access to OT program; and efficacy was associated with year level of enrolment, type of access to OT program, hours of indirect time and hours spend per week engaged in self-care activities.

Conclusion: The results indicate that a number of demographic and academic study variables are significantly associated with aspects of burnout reported by undergraduate OT students.

Application to Practice: Burnout reported by OT students was significantly associated with age and several academic factors. These findings provide important information for academic and fieldwork educators so that strategies can be put in place to manage stress in undergraduate students.