It is expected that preventing burnout in nursing students reduces their dropout rates and nurses’ decisions to leave the job. In addition to reducing negative automatic thoughts, it is necessary to pay attention to rumination, which is assumed to be a maintenance factor, when examining the prevention of burnout. However, the association between rumination and negative automatic thoughts and burnout in nursing students is unclear. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey among 159 nursing students and examined the model hypothesis that rumination promotes negative thoughts and facilitates burnout in nursing students. The results showed that rumination mediated negative automatic thoughts and worsened the effects of burnout. This study suggests the importance of intervening for rumination in order to prevent burnout among nursing students.
