TITLE:
Prediction of Perceived Stress of Hong Kong Nursing Students with Coping Behaviors over Clinical Practicum: A Cross-Sectional Study
AUTHORS:
Anson Tang Chui Yan
KEYWORDS:
Perceived Stress, Nursing Students, Coping Behaviors, Clinical Practicum
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.7 No.5,
May
17,
2019
ABSTRACT:
Nursing students are facing more and more stress in their course of study especially in clinical practicum. The study aimed to predict nursing students’ stress level in clinical practicum with coping behaviors. It was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducting in a self-financing institution in Hong Kong. Nursing students who were studying the pre-registration baccalaureate nursing program and completed all the practicum blocks were recruited. Those who had extended the study and failed any of the practicum blocks were excluded. Convenience sampling was used to recruit subjects. Participants were required to fill out the demographic sheet, COPE Inventory and Assessment of Stress among Nursing Students scale during lecture at the commencement of a semester. The whole data collection lasted for 30 minutes. Stepwise multiple regression was used to do the modeling with p-value being set at 0.05. 131 eligible nursing students were recruited with about half of female students. The regression model accounted for 50% of the variance in the perceived stress level. Gender, focus on and venting of emo-tions, restraint, use of emotional social support and denial were positively associated with perceived stress level (R squared = 0.52, p = 0.001). It is to conclude that nurse educators can refer to the findings to screen out students with higher risk of being overwhelmed by clinical learning and ineffective coping. Proactive measures should be taken to prevent poor health outcomes.