Levels of Clinical Practice Stress and Coping Strategies according to Nursing Students' Personality/Behavior Types

Stress is common among nursing students and it has been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined nursing students’ stress levels and their coping strategies in clinical practice before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A repeated-measures study design was used to examine the relationship between nursing students’ stress levels and coping strategies before and during the pandemic. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to validate the survey and a student T-test was used to compare the level of stress and coping strategies among 131 nursing students. The STROBE checklist was used. During COVID-19, there was a reliable and accurate relationship between stress and coping strategies. Furthermore, both stress and coping strategy scores were lower before COVID-19 and higher during COVID-19. Nursing students are struggling to achieve a healthy stress-coping strategy during the pandemic. There is a need for the introduction of stress management programs to help foster healthy coping skills. Students are important resources for our health system and society and will continue to be vital long term. It is now up to both nursing educators and health administrators to identify and implement the needed improvements in training and safety measures because they are essential for the health of the patient as well as future pandemics.

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Stress and Coping Strategies Among Nursing Students

Global Journal of Health Science ◽

10.5539/gjhs.v10n5p33 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 33 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Emad Adel Shdaifat ◽

Aysar Jamama ◽

Mohammed Al-Amer

Keyword(s):

Nursing Students ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

Clinical Skills ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Skills Training ◽

Coping Mechanisms ◽

Stress And Coping ◽

Moderate Level ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

And Coping

INTRODUCTION: Nursing students suffer from high levels of stress related to academic assignments in addition to clinical skills training. As a psychosocial phenomenon, stress affects students’ academic achievement and wellbeing. Coping mechanisms help students deal with the challenges arising from stress.AIMS: To illustrate the level of stress and common stressors among nursing students; to describe the difference in stress level related to demographic data; and to identify coping mechanisms used by nursing students.METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the type of stress and coping strategies among nursing students. The level of stress was evaluated through Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and type of coping strategies were assessed by use of Coping Behaviours Inventory (CBI).RESULTS: Students perceived moderate level of stress, most commonly attributed to assignments and workload, teachers and nursing staff, peers and daily life, and taking care of patients. The most frequently used coping mechanism was problem solving. The study found that age, GPA, education level and residence are good predictors of the use of transference as a coping behaviour.CONCLUSION: A moderate level of stress among students illustrates the need for stress management programs and the provision of suitable support.

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