Initial clinical practicum stress among nursing students: A cross-sectional study on coping styles

Eunhee Hwang, Mijung Kim, Sujin Shin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nursing students experience various stressors during their initial clinical practicum. As these stressors negatively affect learning and performance, coping strategies are essential. Therefore, this research study explored the relationship between coping styles and stress levels using a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 184 nursing students. Clinical practicum stress and coping styles were assessed via electronic questionnaires, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and variance analyses. The highest score for clinical practice stress was for the practical education environment and practical work burden. The total stress score differed significantly according to coping style (t = −2.36, p = 0.020), and the total stress score of the passive coping group was higher. Among the sub-categories of stress, the scores of the education environment (t = −2.68, p = 0.008) and having undesirable role models (t = −2.14, p = 0.034) were significantly higher in the passive coping group. Although practical work burden was the highest stress factor in the active coping style group, the stress on the environment was highest in the passive coping group. The findings show that professors and clinical educators should recognize the various coping styles and incorporate different teaching methods in the clinical setting.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4932
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume18
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Editorial support for the manuscript was provided by Ewha Womans University and Wonkwang University.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Clinical practicum
  • Coping
  • Nursing students
  • Psychological stress

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