Sources of Nursing Clinical Education Stressors and Students’ Coping Styles Against Them

Unlike many other student groups, the nursing students, due to their
educational field and profession, are facing with many stressful factors, while
they should adapt themselves with such conditions. In addition, based on the
psychological theories, the coping styles play an important role to reduce stress
and therefore, they affect general health of persons. The aim of this study was
to determine the stressful sources of clinical education and coping styles in the
nursing students.
Instrument & Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, 309 nursing
students of Urmia Nursing and Midwifery Faculty were studied via census
method in 2014. Data was collected, using a demographic characteristic form,
Perceived Stress Scale, and Coping Skills Questionnaire. Data was analyzed in
SPSS 20 software using ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman Correlation
tests.
Findings: The highest and the lowest stressful factors were “teachers and
nursing staff” and “patient care”, respectively. Problem-centered coping skills
were used by the nursing students more than emotion-centered coping style.
There were significant differences in general stress mean score and general
score of coping styles between female and male students, as well as between
students of different educational classes (p<0.05). In addition, there was a
positive and significant correlation between perceived stress of clinical
education and the emotion-centered coping style (p=0.0001; r=0.3).
Conclusion: The highest stressful factor of clinical education in the nursing
students is “teachers and nursing staff”. In addition, problem-based coping
skills were used by the nursing students more than the emotion-based coping
style.