Stress And Coping Strategies Among Nursing Students: And Impact on The Immune System

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study among 63 undergraduate nursing students of the West End University, Accra, Ghana, to ascertain stress and coping strategies among nursing students: impact on the immune system. Majority of them are of the West End University college, 59(93.7%), who were mostly aged 18-22 years old, 33(52.4%), mostly females, 57(90.5%) and unmarried. They were mostly neutral about academic workload being overwhelming, 30(47.8%), majority agreed that clinical practice requirements are stressful, 24(39.1%), they strongly agreed and agreed that financial challenges increase stress, 35(56.5%) and 22(34.8%) respectively, and is similar for language barrier contributing to stress, with cultural differences mostly contributing to stress 14(21.7%) and majority been neutral about having difficulty balancing academic and personal life, 21(34.8%). Many of them experienced headaches, fatigue or body weakness, 30(47.8%), many rarely and sometimes find it hard to concentrate in class, 25(39.2%) and 22(34.8%) respectively, the stress rarely negatively affected the academic performance of many, 22(34.8%), many also never or sometimes experienced sleep disturbances, 17(30.4%) and 16(26.1%) respectively, while most of them were never, rarely or sometimes withdrawn from friends or social activities, 16(6.1%). The coping strategies of nursing students to stress was mostly to pray or engage in spiritual/religious activities, 23(34.8%), many sometimes or always talk to friends, colleagues or family members for support, 25(39.1%) and 23(34.8%) respectively and majority rarely sought help or advise from academic advisors, 30(43.5%). Similarly, many sometimes or rarely participated in sports or physical activities to relieve stress, 29(47.8%) and 23(34.8%) respectively, majority rarely employed relaxation techniques, such as sleep to reduce stress, 27(39.1%), majority always engaged in lectures to reduce stress, 23(34.8%) and mostly often or always try to manage their time effectively during stress, 27(39.1%) and 28(43.5%) respectively. in conclusion, the study observed that there were different sources of stress among undergraduate nursing students, such as academic workload, finance and clinical training requirements, with the effects of such stress being headaches, lack of concentration and sleep disturbances, while the coping strategies were mainly engagement in spiritual exercise, support from family, friends and colleagues, and relaxation.