Academic Stress and Coping Strategies Among Newly Enrolled Full-Time Professional Master's Students in Nursing: A Qualitative Study

Abstract Objective To explore the sources of academic stress, coping strategies, and psychological growth processes among newly enrolled full-time professional master's students in nursing, and to provide empirical evidence for nursing education administrators to develop targeted stress interventions. Methods Purposive sampling was used to recruit 13 newly enrolled full-time professional master's students in nursing from a university in Yunnan Province between September and December 2025. Data were collected through one-to-one semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis, with NVivo 15.0 used for data management and coding. Results Newly enrolled full-time professional master's students in nursing experienced five dimensions of academic stress: employment and future development, research competence and tasks, coursework and academic tasks, time and role management, and interpersonal and environmental adaptation. Four categories of coping strategies were identified: psychological adjustment and emotional expression, behavioral relaxation and distraction, proactive academic problem-solving, and reliance on external support systems. During the coping process, participants experienced cognitive transformation, enhanced competence, temporary confusion, and the development of self-identity and future planning, demonstrating a dynamic adaptive pattern of “stress perception–multiple coping strategies–cognitive growth.” Based on the transactional model of stress and coping proposed by Lazarus and Folkman, these coping strategies reflected the core logic of coordinated adaptation between problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. Conclusion Academic stress among newly enrolled full-time professional master's students in nursing is multidimensional and interwoven. Their dynamic adaptation to stress constitutes an integrated process involving coping, psychological transformation, and competence development. Nursing education administrators should optimize training programs and build multidimensional support systems based on the characteristics of stress and the logic of coping, thereby helping new students successfully adapt to stress and complete their role transition.