Stressors, Academic Performance, and Learned Resourcefulness in Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Abstract

High stress levels in nursing students may affect memory, concentration, and problem-solving ability, and may lead to decreased learning, coping, academic performance, and retention. College students with higher levels of learned resourcefulness develop greater self-confidence, motivation, and academic persistence, and are less likely to become anxious, depressed, and frustrated, but no studies specifically involve nursing students. This explanatory correlational study used Gadzella's Student-life Stress Inventory (SSI) and Rosenbaum's Self Control Scale (SCS) to explore learned resourcefulness, stressors, and academic performance in 53 baccalaureate nursing students. High levels of personal and academic stressors were evident, but not significant predictors of academic performance (p = .90). Age was a significant predictor of academic performance (p = < .01) and males and African-American/Black participants had higher learned resourcefulness scores than females and Caucasians. Studies in larger, more diverse samples are necessary to validate these findings.

Impact of nursing students’ profile on burnout syndrome and hardiness personality

“…[2] Also, by relieving stress, the practice of sports prevents psychological disorders, such as depression, Burnout and anxiety. [27,28] The 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th semesters significantly increase the Professional Efficacy of nursing students. However, when we assessed the t-values, the 4th semester showed the highest impact on the Professional Efficacy.…”

“…[21] The 30 items that comprise the instrument are arranged in three domains: control-2, 3, 8, 9, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, and 29; commitment-1, 6, 7, 11, 16, 17, 22, 27, 28, and 30; and challenge-4, 5, 10, 13, 14, 19, 21, 23, 24, and 26 (Serrano, 2009). Questions are filled in a fourpoint Likert scale (0-not true; 1-somewhat true; 2-almost completely true; and 3-completely true) and the response scale of items 3,4,5,6,8,13,16,18,19,20,22,23,25,28, and 30 must to be reversed before scores analysis. [22] …”

Stress intensity of a nursing students regarding to biosocial and academic characteristics - A cross-sectional study

“…Therefore, the fact to use subway considering the time taken to arrive at home and at school reflect in how student evaluates and manages his time to develop curriculum activities which have already highlighted as stressful, and reconcile them with another daily demands. In this sense, studies show that main stressors for nursing students have been related to curriculum structure, among them, exams, competitiveness concerning assessments notes amount of content to be learned and lack of time to review what has been learned [15,[28][29][30] .…”

“…favors establishment of social relations and plays a protective effect on mental health [31] . Additionally, it assists in prevention and treatment of various mental disorders such as depression and anxiety [29,32] . Therefore, according to research about leisure among ICU nurses, the necessity of deploy this type of activity in professionals performance context is stands out [33] .…”

Incorporating Spirituality into Health Sciences Education

“…Educators of students in the health sciences are well acquainted with the stress that students experience as a result of the intense curriculum: stress that may result in physical problems (Okami et al 2011;Paro et al 2010;Hirsch et al 2009), psychological problems (Chernomas 2013; Chan et al 2011;Goff 2011;Hensel and Stoelting-Gettelfinger 2011;Dyrbye et al 2010;Walsh et al 2010), or in professional burnout (Katsifaraki 2013;Bui et al 2011;Chipas and McKenna 2011;Tartas et al 2011). This intensity is an artifact of the desire for shorter training periods coupled with an explosion of content in the health sciences.…”