Perceived stress factors among newcomers to the nursing career

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalent stress factors among new students to the Faculties of Nursing at the Faculties of Nursing at the Universities of Cadiz, Cordoba, Huelva and Seville, and the influence of socio-demographic, academic, socio-economic, orientation and health factors. Design: A descriptive, observational and cross-sectional study. Methodology: 617 first year nursing students were surveyed (with a 95.66 % response rate) by means of two questionnaires, one for socio-demographics and health, the other for the stress perceived by new students. A descriptive analysis of the stress factors was then carried out for the frequency, mean and standard deviation. The relation between factors was examined through differential analysis by means of the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric tests. Results: The situations of greatest anxiety among new undergraduates are “taking examinations” and “the amount of work I have to do”. Consequently, the most stressful factor is “academic stress” whilst the least stressful is “feelings of loneliness”. The students who feel most stress across various factors can be identified as: over 25, women, studying outside their home province, and living in rented accommodation during the academic year. Conclusions: Starting a degree in nursing is a stressful time, and students can find their health, quality of life and academic performance negatively affected. The main determinants of stress among new undergraduates are the joint demands of examinations and workload. It would undoubtedly be enlightening to examine this issue further in order to find the possible causes of the problem and to develop strategies that can help in its prevention and so improve the students’ experience of university.

Nursing training and its association with burnout syndrome among Mexican undergraduate students

“…Despite the lack of accurate estimates about the global prevalence of BS in nursing students, proportions ranging from 10.5% to 100% have been reported in the subjects studied (Quina Galdino et al, 2020;Reyes & Blanco, 2016;Rudman & Gustavsson, 2012;Silva, Chiquito, Andrade, Brito, & Camelo, 2011;Vasconcelos, Trindade, Barbosa, & Martino, 2020); nonetheless, these proportions depend on the characteristics of each country, as well as the measuring tools and cut-off point used for its definition. The high levels of BS reported may be because nursing students are exposed to a highly stressful environment characterized by full-time courses, with an excessive workload, lack of sleep, pressure from the demands of professors, competitiveness, anxiety to perform satisfactorily in each class, as well as other institutional, personal, and affective factors (Njim et al, 2018;Pereira, Miranda, & Passos, 2010;Pérez Contreras et al, 2021;Quina Galdino et al, 2020). BS in nursing students has been associated with depression, substance abuse, sleep deprivation, thoughts of dropping out of school, and poor school performance (Hernández-Martínez, Marques Rodrigues, Jiménez-Díaz, & Rodríguez-de-Vera, 2016;Hwang & Kim, 2022;Wei et al, 2021).…”