Academic stress factors in nursing students during clinic trials

Abstract

Academic stress has been for several years an important issue within clinical and educational psychology. This kind of stress can be attributed to several variables related to the mental health of the students which can be affected due to multiple factors, and academic situations that generate stress. The objective is to determine the academic stress factors among nursing students during clinical practices. The study is of non-experimental nature, descriptive, transversal. The sample is comprised of 333 students from the Nursing Faculty of the University of Michoacan in San Nicolas Hidalgo. The Kezkak instrument was used, structured in 5 dimensions, and a Likert type scale. Cronbach .95 reliability. Among the main results, we have that 76.6% of the students are female. The age ranges from 18 to 25 years old. In the “lack of competency” dimension 39.0% present stress when punctured with a needle. The second dimension, “Contact with suffering 45.9% show signs of stress when in contact with a terminally-ill patient. 46.2% when seeing a patient die. The third dimension, tutors, 48.3% get stressed by their interactions with health professionals. Fourth dimension, impotency, 48.9% present some stress due to not being able to attend to their patients. The fifth dimension, relationship with the patients, 54% do not know how to respond to the patient’s expectations. Finally, we conclude that second-semester students believe that the less they know and less experience during their clinical practices the less stress.