Stress and Coping Strategies among nursing students in Western Uttar Pradesh India: A Descriptive Study

Background: 70% nursing students suffering from high level distress due to the demanding nature of their education and training. This further affects their academic performance, learning outcome of the students, physical and mental health, quality of life, resilience and even leads to suicidal behavior. Aim of this study was to explore stressors and coping strategies among nursing students. Material and methods: A descriptive survey was conducted on 100 nursing students of medical college. Structured standardized measuring tool perceived stress scale and coping behavior inventory were used to assess stressors and coping behaviors of the nursing students. Pearson corelation (r) was used to find the correlation between stressors and coping behavior. Multivariate analysis was used to find association between stress level, coping behaviour and demographic variables. Result: Mean age of the participants was 20.53±2.1. 93% participants were female and 7% were male. 67% were doing BSc Nursing course and 33% were doing GNM. Overall mean stress score was 47.85±13.16. Stress from taking care of patients, stress from the clinical environment and stress from teachers and nursing staff were highest source of stress. Overall mean score of coping mechanism was 38.08±8.14. Problem solving was the commonest coping mechanism used by participants against stressor. Conclusion: Students had higher stress from taking care of patient or environmental stress, so students should be prepared in simulation lab till they become skilled and confident to work on patient and clinical environment.