title: Hardy personality and burnout syndrome among nursing students in three Brazilian universities-an analytic study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nursing students may exhibit the characteristics of resistance to stress, such as hardiness, which can reduce the risk of burnout. However, we found only one published study about these phenomena among nursing students. Thus, we investigated the association between hardiness and burnout in such students.
  
  
  METHODS
  An analytic, cross-sectional study was conducted among 570 nursing students from three Brazilian universities. Data were collected relating to sociodemographic characteristics, hardiness, and burnout, which we analyzed using inferential statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed that 64.04% of nursing students in the sample had a high level of emotional exhaustion, 35.79% had a high level of cynicism, and 87.72% had a low level of professional efficacy: these are dimensions of burnout. We also found that 48.77% had a high level of control, 61.40% a high level of commitment, and 35.44% a high level of challenge: these are dimensions of hardiness. Only 24.74% of the students experienced burnout, and 21.93% met the criteria for a hardy personality. There was a statistically significant difference between the frequency of hardiness and burnout (p = 0.033), with 68.00% of hardy students not exhibiting burnout.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although nursing students live with educational stressors, burnout was not preponderant in our sample students; this may be linked to hardiness. Thus, given its benefits to student life and health, we recommend the development of strategies to promote hardiness among nursing students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Federal University of Santa Maria, 78 Fioravante Antonio Spiazzi St., Zip: 97095-180 Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rodrigo Marques
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Federal University of Santa Maria, 78 Fioravante Antonio Spiazzi St., Zip: 97095-180 Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carolina Tonini
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Goulart
authors.affiliation: Department of Administration, Federal University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luis Felipe Dias
authors.initials: LFD
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Paulista University (UNIP), Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Patrícia Maria
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.affiliation: Medical-Surgical Nursing Department, Nursing School of the University of São Paulo (EEUSP), Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Lucia Siqueira
authors.initials: ALS
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Federal University of Santa Maria, 78 Fioravante Antonio Spiazzi St., Zip: 97095-180 Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: de Azevedo Guido