A Cross-sectional Study on Coping, Resilience, and Perceived Stress among Nursing Students

A BSTRACT Background: Stress is a common occurrence among nursing students because of their clinical rotations, rigorous coursework, examinations, research projects, class assignments, poor grades, strained relationships, managing their personal lives, fear of making errors, worrying about the future, and dealing with difficult circumstances such as bereavement, death, and serious sickness. Despite the fact that nursing students are essential human resources, little thorough research has been conducted on the perceived stress that plagues them, especially in India. Aim: This study aimed to examine the perceived stress, coping strategies, and resilience of nursing students. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. This study employed a convenience sampling method for 100 nursing students in Madurai during their clinical practice. The information was gathered using a self-administered questionnaire with demographic details and the Perceived Stress Scale by Cohen et al . (1994), the BRIEF Coping Scale by Carver (1997), and Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale by Campbell-Sills and Stein (2007). Since the data were not normally distributed, Spearman’s correlation, Kruskal–Wallis H test, and Mann–Whitney U test were used in addition to the descriptive statistics. Results: This study found that only 7% of nursing students experienced low perceived stress, whereas the remaining 55% and 38% experienced moderate and high stress, respectively, and that perceived stress had a significant correlation with coping and resilience. Conclusion: The study concluded that nursing teachers and clinical preceptors/mentors should create programs that assist nursing students in preparing for the challenges they face during their nursing course. These findings will help reduce their stress and create interventions that will support students’ healthy coping strategies and resilience.