Association between senior nursing students’ perceived stress and learning environment in clinical practice

Abstract

Background and objective: Senior nursing students encounter various stressors during their practice in clinical learning environment. Inability to manage these stressors, may affect students' academic achievement and well-being, which in turn put the nursing profession at risk. This study aimed to examine the association between senior nursing students' perceived stress and learning environment in clinical practice and their coping strategies. Methods: Study subject consisted of 400 senior nursing students enrolled in the 4th academic year at Faculty of nursing-Tanta University. Present study used descriptive design. Four tools were used to collect the data: Nursing Students' Perception of Stress in Clinical Practice, Physio-Psycho-Social Response Scale, Coping Strategies Scale, and Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure. Results: Senior nursing students' experienced a high level of stress in clinical practice with total mean (2.87), and their response to stress indicated poor health status with total mean (2.76). Their learning environment need more effort to be improved with total mean score (2.4). There were high statistical significant positive correlation between students' perception of learning environment and their responses to stress (p < .001). Conclusions: Senior nursing students experienced high level of stress in clinical practice; their responses to stress indicated a poor health status. Majority of them used problem focused disengagement and emotional focused disengagement strategies to deal with stress in clinical practice. Their perception of learning environment indicated a more positive than negative, so learning environment need more effort to be improved. Accordingly we recommend promote healthy, supportive learning environment and refine nursing curricula.

Perceived Stress, Depression, and Associated Factors among Undergraduate Health Science Students at Arsi University in 2019 in Oromia, Ethiopia

“…This could be explained as lack of preparation for practical attachment, lack of proper supervision, poor interpersonal relationships with clinical staff, and pressure from instructors contributing to the high perceived stress of students. This is aligned with the finding of Tanta University, in Egypt by 2017 [17].…”

“…The result of the public university of Ghana among midwives and nursing students brought that there is a high level of stress experienced by students due to academic and intrapersonal stressors [14]. Studies at the Tanta University of Egypt, Malaysian universities, Tarnow, Southern Poland, and the University of Baghdad reveal moderate to high levels of stress in which stressors were related to academics including clinical practice and social relationships [15][16][17][18].…”

Perceived stress, stressors, and coping strategies among nursing students in the Middle East and North Africa: an overview of systematic reviews

“…Some studies reported significantly higher stress levels in nursing students living in rural areas [ 70 ], having a father with low school education or non-professional background (e.g., farmers or manual workers) [ 70 ], low grades in the previous year [ 70 ], low family income [ 71 , 72 ], enrolled in community courses [ 73 , 74 ], spending six or more hours studying per day [ 72 ], 6 h or less of sleep per night [ 72 ], and suffering from overweight and obesity [ 71 ] (Table S4 ). The impact of age [ 71 , 75 – 78 ], gender [ 71 , 76 , 79 , 80 ], marital status [ 77 , 78 ], stages/levels of student’s study [ 77 – 83 ], and student’s interest in nursing [ 74 , 75 ], on stress levels seems to be inconsistent (Table S4 ).…”

Relationship of Nursing Students Stress and Their Personal Response to Stress in Learning Environment

“…Moreover, stress may cause serious problems such as smoking, drug addiction, and suicide. Students' stress can be viewed intellectually in their inability to finish their homework on time, failure to solve complications, decline in their results (Elsayes & Obied, 2018).…”