Burnout syndrome among undergraduate nursing students at a public university1

OBJECTIVE to investigate the burnout syndrome and its relationship with demographic and academic variables among undergraduate nursing students at a public university in Southern Brazil. METHOD a quantitative study with 168 students, by applying an adaptation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey, validated for this study. We used descriptive and variance analysis of the data analysis. RESULTS we found that students do not have the burnout syndrome, manifesting high average scores in Emotional Exhaustion, low in Disbelief and high in Professional Effectiveness; that younger students who perform leisure activities have greater Professional Effectiveness, unlike students in early grades with no extracurricular activities; combining work and studies negatively influenced only the Professional Effectiveness factor, while the intention of giving up influenced negatively Disbelief and Professional Effectiveness factors. CONCLUSION the situations that lead students to Emotional Exhaustion need to be recognized, considering the specificity of their study environments.