The relationship between learning burnout, professional commitment, and psychological capital in undergraduate clinical medical students

This study examines the current status of and relationship between learning burnout, professional commitment, and psychological capital in undergraduate clinical medical students. A total of 249 undergraduate students were randomly selected from a 5-year clinical medical program at a medical university in Shandong, China. The study employed the Learning Burnout Scale, Professional Commitment Scale, Psychological Capital Scale to survey the sample, and performed structural equation modeling and multiple regression to test the proposed research model using SPSS 19.0. Significant differences in learning burnout were found among students in terms of their gender, years in the medical program, and student leadership (t = 1.811, F = 22.091, t = −2.295; P < .01). There were also significant differences in their professional commitment according to their gender, years in the program, and student leadership (t = −2.711, F = 4.275, t = 3.389; P < .01). Psychological capital differed significantly based on gender, years in the program, and student leadership (t = 8.709, F = 6.182, P < .01, t = 2.086, P < .05). Learning burnout showed significant negative correlations with professional commitment and psychological capital (r = −0.311, r = −0.291; P < .01). The psychological capital and professional commitment of undergraduate students of clinical medicine serve as predictors of learning burnout. Psychological capital partially mediates the relationship between professional commitment and learning burnout.