Stress, physio-psycho-social status and coping behaviors in clinical practice of nursing students at Duy Tan University

Objectives: To describe the stress, physio-psycho-social status and coping behaviors of nursing students in clinical practice; To describe the differences in stress, physio-psycho-social status and coping behaviors among nursing students of different demographic factors; Exploring the relationship between students’ stress, physio-psycho-social status and coping behavior. Methods: Using a descriptive, cross - sectional design. The subjects were 378 nursing students who had finalized their clinical practice at Duy Tan University for the semester. Three standardized instruments were used, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Physio-Psycho-Social Response Scale (PPSRS) and the Coping Behavior Inventory (CBI). Results: Results showed that “assignments and workload” were the highest sources of stress in clinical practice (1.80 ± 0.68). The highest symptom response to stress was emotional symptoms (1.60 ± 0.89). The main coping behaviors was “transference” (2.55 ± 0.84). Interest in nursing, academic year were a significant difference in perceived stress, physio-psycho-social status and coping behaviors (p < 0.05). Significant positive correlations between perceived stress, physio-psycho-social status, coping behavior were found (p < 0.05). Conclusions: These results are imperative for supporting nursing education in clinical practice to take methods to supply a helpful environment in order to decrease nursing students’ stress, warrants further interventions from both clinical teachers and clinical staff. Effective intervention planning and strategies are needed to decrease or prevent stress in nursing education and training.