Stress Management of the First Practice among Nursing Students

Abstract

The purposes of this mixed-methods research were to study stress level, factors causing to stress and to explore coping mechanisms used by nursing students who had experience with stress during the first practice of fundamental of nursing practicum. The population included 141 nursing students who were at Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Nakhon Ratchasima.The questionnaires (58 items) were used to collect quantitative data. For the qualitative data, participants were asked 15 students by semi-structured interview to describe their experiences of stress management after this subject had finished. The reliability of instruments were reported by Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient as .88. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistic, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient and content analysis. The results showed the majority of the nursing students had a moderate level of stress (85.83%) followed by a high level of stress (2.84%). Correlational analysis (statistically significant at p < 0.01) the teaching management especially pre-training section as well as good relationship between nursing instructors and pupils has been highlighted and is recommended as a firm basis for stress management of student in particular.