Stress and coping strategies among undergraduate nursing students: A descriptive assessment from Western Rajasthan

Abstract

Background: Nursing is a very challenging profession, which requires very stringent training since initial years of nursing education. Throughout the training period, students are exposed to various stressful situations. Inability to cope up with varied stressors may lead to psychological distress and impede students' pursuits of nursing career. Objectives: The aim of the present study is to assess stress and coping strategies among nursing students of Western Rajasthan. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and twenty-one undergraduate nursing students were recruited for the study through total enumeration. Standardized Student Nurse Stress Index and brief cope scale were used to assess stress and coping strategies. Results: Nearly 82.4% of the students reported moderate level of stress. Interface worries (mean score 17.88 ± 4.9) and academic load (mean score 17.6 ± 4.78) were the major source of perceived stress. Students considered attitude of other professionals toward nursing, lack of free time, and fear of examination as most likely reasons of their distress. Active coping was the most commonly used coping strategies. Level of stress was found to have significant association with the interest of students in nursing. Conclusions: Interface worries and academic-related concerns emerged as major source of stress. A positive trend was evident in the use of adaptive coping strategies over succumbing meekly. However, there is a great need to plan and implement stress management programs so that these budding health professionals could be better equipped and trained to face various challenges of the profession.

Study of stress, anxiety, depression and coping strategies among nursing students in a tertiary care teaching hospital, South India

“…The study participants adopted mostly positive coping strategies such as prayer/meditation, active coping, help from others, positive reframing, etc and the least, the negative strategies such as self-blame, venting, drug abuse, etc. This finding corroborates with the findings of Singh, Nebhiani, Dhar and Kumar et al 11,12,22,23…”

“…The findings were much lower in comparison to study conducted by Singh, Nebhinani, Dhar, Kumar. 11,12,22,23 The percentage of stress finding was higher than the findings of the study carried out by Cheung (20.0%) in undergraduate nursing students, Maharaj (41.2%) among working nurses. 20,21 The study also revealed academic year of the student as one of the correlates of depression.…”

“…Indian studies conducted in Delhi and Rajasthan had revealed moderate degree of stress present among 77% and 82% of nursing students respectively. 11,12 Stress is the negative feelings and beliefs that occur whenever people feel unable to cope with demands from their environment. Anxiety is an ABSTRACT Background: Nursing students are at extremely high risk for experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression due to their varied circumstances.…”

Anxiety among Nursing Students towards Clinical Placement during COVID-19 in a Tertiary Hospital of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

“…This finding is similar to a study done among undergraduate nursing students in Western Rajasthan. 16 As the lockdown and the emergence of cases were similar in India and Nepal with similar culture and methods of teaching too, the results were found to be consistent. These findings are also in consistent with other study done in Jimma University in Ethiopia which reported the use of healthy coping strategies as the common method of coping.…”

Emotional intelligence and perceived stress among students in Saudi health colleges: A cross-sectional correlational study

“…Key stressors included interface concerns, the academic load, the attitude of other professionals toward nursing, a lack of free time, and a fear of examinations. 3 In a study of nursing students in Brazil, most participants presented low levels of stress during general course activities. Their main stressor was a lack of time for leisure, family, and extracurricular activities.…”