Abstract
The epidemic of burnout has been widely documented among health discipline students. However, there is limited information available on the prevalence of burnout and its association with resilience among clinical-level respiratory therapy (RT) students.
Between March 2022 and May 2022, a descriptive, cross-sectional study using a convenience sample of RT students and interns was conducted. A total of 559 RT students and interns from 15 RT programs responded to socio-demographic questions and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive, inferential, and correlation tests.
Of the 559 respondents, 78% reported a high level of burnout. Within the three subscales of burnout, 52% reported emotional exhaustion (EE), 59% reported depersonalization (DP), and 55% reported low personal achievement (PA). The prevalence of burnout increased as students proceeded to senior years (
= 0.006). In addition, participants with higher grade point averages (GPA) reported a higher level of burnout. Only 2% of the respondents reported a high level of resiliency. Further, there were negative correlations between resilience and EE (r = -41,
< 0.001) and DP (r = -32,
= 0.03), and a positive correlation with low PA (r = 0.56,
= 0.002).
The findings showed a high prevalence of burnout among RT students and interns during clinical training in Saudi Arabia. Resilience was associated with all domains of burnout and is likely to play a protective role. Therefore, there is a need for collaborative interventions to promote resiliency during clinical training to alleviate and overcome burnout symptoms.