Abstract:
Stress is a response to a situation where the person faces difficult to
cope with. Nursing students are likely to undergo considerable amounts of stress
during the study period. Aim of this study is to assess the perceived stress level of
final year nursing students at the school of nursing, Jaffna and to evaluate the
influence of personal factors on it. A cross-sectional descriptive study was
conducted among all the final year nursing students by a self administered
questionnaire after obtaining their consent. This questionnaire had four sections
to collect demographic data, perceived stress level, skills used in stress
management and to identify coping styles following a stressful event etc.
Perceived stress level is measured by the perceived stress scale (developed by
American Sociological Association and the suggested normal mean value is 14.2
(SD±6.2). Chi-squared test was used to find out the significant relationship. 172
responses were obtained and 33% of them were from males and only 26% studied
biology at G.C.E. (A/L). Answers to perceived stress level were marked out of 40,
the mean was 19.55 (SD±6.6), gender (p=0.750), age (p=0.203) and the A/L stream
(p=0.505), did not showed statistically significant differences in perceived stress
level. Regarding stress management skills, time management (p=0.0), interest on
nursing (p=0.00), problem solving techniques (p=0.009), setting achievable goal
(p=0.019), ability to say “no” (p=0.02) and escape or avoidance (p=0.002) show
significant differences but self rewarding (p=0.326) did not. With regard to
coping styles after exposure to stressful conditions, relaxation (p=0.009), leisure
activities (p=0.012) and relationship support (p=0.042) had influence but positive
reappraisal (p=0.063) and ability to express feelings (p=0.057) did not show
significant reduction. The stress level of nursing students has a big range due to
individual variation of personal stress management skills. From the results it
could be observed that the students who practised stress management skills
appear to have less perceived stress levels. With the best stress management
skills students can reduce the stress level and improve their performance.
Further studies would be useful to explore the causes of the elevated stress levels
of the nursing students.
