Instructors’ caring behaviors, burnout, satisfaction, and academic performance of nursing students in online education and the pandemic era

Objective: This study aimed to determine the predictive ability of instructors’ online caring behaviors, online learning burnout, and satisfaction with online learning on nursing students’ academic performance.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study employing the administration of online self-report measures among 606 undergraduate students in one large nursing school in the Philippines. Statistical analysis involved the use of descriptive statistics, Pearson’s r, and linear regression.

Results: The mean scores in the instructors’ online caring behaviors scale, online learning burnout scale, online learning satisfaction scale, and self-reported academic performance were 3.88 ± 0.70, 4.00 ± 0.84, 2.51 ± 0.96, and 3.25 ± 0.79 respectively. Satisfaction (β = 0.216, P = 0.000), burnout (β = 0.-098, P = 0.019), and instructors’ caring behaviors (β = 0.096, P = 0.030) explained 11.7% of the variability in the students’ academic performance.

Conclusions: Instructors’ caring behavior and levels of burnout and satisfaction are linked to students’ academic success in the virtual learning environment. This study calls for nursing instructors to be mindful of signs of burnout, employ proactive measures that promote satisfactory learning, and foster more caring behaviors in this time of global health crisis.