Mindfulness-Based Interventions Addressing Academic Burnout and Occupational Balance Within Healthcare Students
Year: 2026
Type: study-registration
Abstract: Healthcare students across all healthcare disciplines consistently report elevated rates of academic burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism regarding their studies, and a diminished academic efficacy that is all driven by demanding coursework, clinical placements, high expectations and high stakes (Velázquez-Paniagua et al., 2026). This chronic stress overload not only impacts one's mental health but also their occupational balance defined as the ability to engage in a combination of activities including self care, productivity, rest, and leisure, with research showing that this balance fluctuates across healthcare students education and is closely tied to their overall well being (Larsson et al., 2024). Mindfulness based interventions also known as MBIs such as mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), have been brought to light as a feasible and low cost strategy for addressing burnout by developing present moment and nonjudgmental awareness that supports emotional regulation and stress recovery (Velázquez-Paniagua et al., 2026). This effect is not limited to medical students as there is a longitudinal study of first year nursing students that found that a mindfulness based wellness curriculum was associated with reduced burnout risk (Strout et al., 2026). However, far less is known about how these interventions specifically affect occupational balance and participation rather than solely burnout and stress symptoms, and this research is spread out across different disciplines, interventions, and outcome measures, which is why a scoping review is a better fit than a systematic review at this point (Larsson et al., 2024). This gap is important for occupational therapy practice because occupational therapists are positioned to design and deliver interventions that support balance in meaningful occupations rather than solely focusing on symptom reduction. This scoping review addresses the gap by mapping existing evidence on mindfulness based interventions and their impact on both academic burnout and occupational balance specifically among undergraduate and graduate healthcare students.
Source: Open Science Framework
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214354541