Clinical Practice Stress and Coping Experience of Men in Nursing as a Student

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the stress coping experience of men nursing students in clinical practice. Methods: In-depth interview were done using semi-structured questionnaire with 25 men nursing students taking clinical practice. Data were analyzed using grounded theory. Results: Core category of coping experience of these nursing students was 'a rolling stone'. Students' coping strategies were 'women centered environment', 'physical difficulty', 'lack of sufficient role models', and 'age related'. Helping components for their coping behaviors were 'individual characteristics', 'attitude to men nursing student', 'one's vision of nursing', and 'gender equality in nursing culture'. The consequence of this phenomenon were 'a sense of belonging', 'building gender free nursing identity', 'nursing pride acquisition' and 'dream of nursing expert'. Conclusion: Men nursing students emphasized 'growing as a mature nursing student' in clinical practice.