The interplay of grit, resilience, and burnout among medical students during exams: a cross-sectional study in Mansoura university, Egypt

TL;DR

This study explores how grit and resilience can protect medical students from burnout during exams at Mansoura University in Egypt.

Contribution

The study identifies grit and resilience as independent protective factors against burnout in medical students during exam periods.

Findings

Burnout was strongly correlated with lower levels of grit and resilience.

Grit and resilience were independently associated with reduced burnout in multivariable regression analysis.

Exhaustion and cognitive impairment were the most severe burnout subdomains reported.

Abstract

Medical students experience significant burnout during exams, underscoring the need for factors that can buffer its impact. Thus, this cross-sectional study examined the relationship between grit, resilience, and burnout among Mansoura University medical students during the January 2025 exam period. Following a pilot study, an online survey distributed via the faculty’s official student platforms using convenience sampling collected responses from 653 students. Participants completed the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-23), Short Grit Scale (Grit-S), and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Pearson correlations assessed bivariate relationships, and multivariable linear regression identified independent predictors of burnout. Mean total burnout was 3.62 (range 1–5), and subdomain means were highest for exhaustion (3.96) and cognitive impairment (3.66). Burnout correlated negatively with grit (r = − 0.595, p < 0.001) and resilience (r = − 0.519, p < 0.001); grit and resilience were positively correlated (r = 0.426, p < 0.001). In multivariable regression analysis, both grit (Unstandardized Beta (B) = -0.46, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) [-0.52, -0.39]) and resilience (B = -0.32, 95% CI [-0.38, -0.25]) were independently associated with lower burnout. These findings highlight grit and resilience as significant protective factors against burnout among medical students during exams.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-35125-0.