The International Journal of Indian Psychology

ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p)

Volume 6, Issue 3, DIP: 18.01.070/20180603
DOI: 10.25215/0603.70
http://www.ijip.in | July-September, 2018
Research Paper

Level of Stress and Coping Strategies among B. Sc. Nursing

Students

Mr. Baba Vajrala 1*, Ms. S Jasmin Debora 2

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the level of stress and coping strategies among B.sc
nursing students NRI nursing college, Guntur. A total of 160 students were selected using the
stratified random sampling strategy and data was gathered by using perceived stress scale.
Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicated that students
experience Moderate level of stress. coping strategies were high, year after their course and
low among 1st year B.sc nursing students and high among 4th year B.sc nursing students
.There was no significant association between level of stress with Age, gender Religion type
of family, family income and Type of residence. However, The academic year and marital
status were There was significant association between stress and year of study feasible to
p=0.02; marital status p=0.04 stating that married are more stressed than the single. Based on
the findings, recommendations such as educating fresh students on adapting to college
stressors, provision of counselling services in the colleges and focusing counseling on
personal stressors as much as on academic related ones were made for stakeholders and
future researchers. Implications of the findings include the fact that they can be useful in the
management and counseling of nursing students on coping strategies.

Keywords: Stress, Nursing students, coping strategies, counselling

Stress in nursing education is one of the most important issues in the modern world. It can be
identifying as a 20th century disease and has been viewed as a complex and dynamic between
individual and their environments. It can be regarded as a psychological threat in which the
individual perceives a situation as a potential threat. Everyone has stress and which is faced
in our daily life.

Nursing students are prone to stress due to the transitional nature of college life. High levels
of stress are believed to affect student health and academic functions. If the stress is not dealt

1
Professor, NRI College Of Nursing, Chinakakani, Dr. NTR University, Andhrapradesh, India
2
Professor, NRI College Of Nursing, Chinakakani, Dr. NTR University, Andhrapradesh, India
*Responding Author
Received: August 15, 2018; Revision Received: September 4, 2018; Accepted: September 23, 2018
2018 Vajrala, B & Debore, S. J; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 Level of Stress and Coping Strategies among B. Sc. Nursing Students

effectively, Feelings of loneliness, nervousness, sleeplessness and worrying may result.

Basically the stress among the student nurses can be divided into four, Social stress, financial
stress, Academic stress, Clinical areas stress.

Stress affects the mind. Body and behavior in many ways and everyone experiences stress
differently. Long time stress among nursing students or prolonged stress can cause memory
problem and inability to concentrate in the studies.

According to the previous research about 63.7% of the students were in the range between
20-22 years and only 36.3% were between 23-24 years majority of the students belong to
general category 79.5%, 20.5% belong to Sc\St. Has found that about stress. The stress level
of nursing students at different level was mild -34.1%, moderate- 63.6%, Severe -2.3%.

Nursing colleges are now recognized as a stressful environment that often exerts a negative
effect on the academic performance and psychological well-being of the students. Academic
stress is mental distress with respect to some anticipated frustration associated with academic
failure or even unawareness to the possibility of such failure. Students have to face many
academic demands, for example, university examination, answering questions in the class,
showing progress in their subjects ,understanding what the teacher is teaching, competing
with other class mates, fulfilling teachers and parents academic expectations. These demands
may tax or exceed available resources of the students.

Learning to cope with stress is a useful skill for a nursing career and life ahead. By setting
priorities, planning ahead and by organizing, self, one can minimize the impact of stress.
Thus the present study was conducted to assess the causes of stress and coping strategies
used by the newly admitted basic B.Sc. nursing students.

Coping is the process of managing demands that are appraised as taxing. It is not a one-time
action that someone takes. “How a person copes can influence the degrees, duration and
frequency of a stressful event. There is some ways stress management among the student
nurses. i.e family brings great support during problem.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Objectives of the Study
1. To assess the level of stress among B. Sc. Nursing students
2. To assess coping strategy during stress among B. Sc. Nursing students
3. To determine the association between stress and coping strategies with their selected
variables.

Research approach: The researcher assessed the level of stress and Coping Strategy among
B. Sc. Nursing Students by using quantitative research approach.

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 Level of Stress and Coping Strategies among B. Sc. Nursing Students

Research design: The research design adopted for the present study was non experimental
descriptive survey design; as it is powerful design for testing a hypotheses of casual
relationships among variables.

Setting of the study: The present study was conducted in NRI College of Nursing,
Chinakakni, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh. The setting for the study was chosen as per
convience, availability of the subjects, cooperation from management, cost effectiveness and
interest and curiosity of the researcher. Formal permission was obtained from the Principal of
NRI College of Nursing for conducting the study.

Population: The accessible population for the present study was Bsc nursing students
between the ages 17-35 years studying at NRI college of nursing, chinakakani, Guntur
district, Andhrapradesh

Sample and Sampling Technique: the sample for the present study was Bsc nursing students
between the age 17-35 years, studying at NRI college of nursing, chinakakani, Guntur, dist ,
Andhrapradesh. The design employed to recruite the subjects were probability sampling and
sampling method was stratified random sampling to select 160 subjects from 1st,2nd,3rd and
4th year Bsc nursing students .

Inclusion Criteria
Study included nursing students who are
1. Male and female
2. I,II,III year Bsc nursing students between the ages 17-35 years studying in NRI
college of nursing ,Chinakakani, Guntur, Andhrapradesh
3. available at the time of data collection.
4. willing to participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria
Study excluded the BSc nursing students who are
1. Transgender
2. With age below 17 and above 35 years
3. IV years Bsc nursing students.
4. not available at the time of data collection.
5. not willing to participate in the study.
6. Not studying at NRICON

Description of the tool

The structure questionnaire was used in the study to collect socio demographic data such as
Age, Gender, Class, Marital status, Type of family, Type of residence, family income
monthly, Religion; perceived stress scale to assess the level of stress and coping strategies
were assessed by using questionnaire.

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 Level of Stress and Coping Strategies among B. Sc. Nursing Students

Collection of data
Formal permission was obtained from principal of NRI college of nursing, informed consent
was obtained from the respondents and confidentiality was assured to get the cooperation
from the subjects throughout the study The researcher collected the data from 27-9-2016 and
5-10-2016 by using stratified random sampling Technique, stress scale and coping strategies
questionnaire was used to gather the data and the respondents who are with stress were
referred to clinical psychologist.

RESULTS
Distribution of Sociodemographic Variables among the B Sc Nursing Students Regarding
Level of Stress And Coping Stratagies (N=160)
S. N Demographic variables Frequency Percentage
Gender a. Male 57 35.63
1. b. Female 103 64.38
a. >18 years 15 9.38
2 Age b. 19-25 years 144 90
c. 26-30 years 1 0.63
a. 1st years 35 21.87
nd
3 Year of b. 2 years 50 31.25
the study c. 3rd years 30 18.75
th
d. 4 years 45 28.12
4 Marital a. Single 145 19.62
Status b. Married 15 9.37
5 Type of a. Nuclear 114 71.25
family b. Joint 46 28.75
a. Living in the Hostel 87 54.37
Type of b. Living with Parents 66 41.25
6 Residence c. Live at Rent 7 4.37
Family a. <10,000 53 33.12
7 House b. 10,000-30,000 77 48.12
whole c. >50,000 30 18.75
income
monthly
a. Hindu 70 43.75
8 Religion b. Muslim 8 5
c. Christian 82 51.25
d. Any Other - -
The above table describes that, majority of the nursing students were females(103),falling in
the age 19-25 years(144),single(145)with nuclear families(114),residing in hostel(67),earning
Rs10000-30000(77),believing Christianity(82)and Most of them were from studying second
year B.sc nursing(50).

Description of stress
Majority of subjects 60.30% experienced low stress, 37.46% experienced moderate stress,
and stress was high among 2.24% subjects. Perceived stress scale mean score (31.33)) was

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 Level of Stress and Coping Strategies among B. Sc. Nursing Students

high for the first year B.sc nursing and low mean((26.28) stress scores among 4th year B.sc
nursing.

Description of coping strategies

Mean scores of coping strategies were high year after their course and low among 1st year
B.sc nursing students (22.28)and high among 4th year B.sc nursing students (29.66).

Description of Association between stress and demographic variables

There was significant association between stress and year of study feasible to p=0.02; marital
status p=0.04 stating that married are more stressed than the single

Description of Association between coping strategies and demographic variables

As age was continuous variable and it did not follow normality. There was significant
association between coping and marital status of the nursing students indicating low coping
score of married in contrary to single

DISCUSSION
Stress is a global phenomenon and affects everyone. The incidence of stress among students
can have serious and negative effects on their health and studies. Knowledge of the stressors
and their severity among nursing students in the nursing training colleges can be helpful in
effective management and counseling of the students on how to cope and adapt to stressors.
Researchers are therefore interested in assessing level of stress among various categories of
students. The present study therefore examined the level of stress and coping strategies
among the B.sc nursing students at NRI college of nursing .The findings of the present study
provides baseline information for future researchers. The present study also examined the
level of stress with regards to the demographic characteristics of respondents .Based on these
objectives a number of hypotheses were tested. The findings are discussed in the light of the
objectives and hypothesis as follows.

The first objective of the study was to examine the level of stress in terms of its severity
among the students. The hypothesis based on this objective stated that respondents would
report high & moderate level of stress. The results indicated that the students generally
experienced or reported severe levels of stress thus supporting the hypothesis.. This finding is
consistent with the findings of previous studies such as that of Seyefatemi et al. and Beck and
Srivastava which also revealed that nursing students experience high levels of stress
Laddawan Daengthern stated that 2nd and 3rd year students during their clinical practice were
at high level of stress 53.2%, followed by 22.7% at moderate level. Edward Abasimi, Samuel
et.al indicated that students experience several levels of stress.

The second objective was to examine the level of coping strategies in stress among students.
The coping strategies were high year after their course and low among 1st year B.sc nursing
students and high among 4th year B.sc nursing students. Charanjeev Sing stated that 2/3rd of
interns had moderate to severe stress, especially during their clinical practice and medium

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 Level of Stress and Coping Strategies among B. Sc. Nursing Students

coping mechanism .It was found that 63.6% of the students experienced stress due to
assignments and workload. Sandhya Shrestha stated that majority of the Students
experienced moderate stress level and majority of the Students were having moderate coping.
The final objective was to assess the association between the level of stress and coping
strategies with socio demographic variables. The present study findings are consistent with
the findings of previous studies; Atindanbila and Banyem also found no significant
differences in stress with regard to gender among undergraduate students. It is partly
consistent with their study because it found that married respondents reported significantly
higher academic stress and low coping than their single counterparts.

CONCLUSIONS
Strengthening nursing students’ positive coping skills may be helpful for them to effectively
deal with various stressors during their educational experiences while maximizing learning.
Implementing empirically tested approaches may be useful to prevent the recurrence of stress
and lessen its impact such as stress management counseling, counseling programs,
establishing peer and family support systems, and formulating hospital policies that will
support nursing students.

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© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 113
 Level of Stress and Coping Strategies among B. Sc. Nursing Students

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Acknowledgements
The authors profoundly appreciate all the people who have successfully contributed in
ensuring this paper is in place. Their contributions are acknowledged however their names
cannot be able to be mentioned.

Conflict of Interest
The authors colorfully declare this paper to bear not conflict of interests

How to cite this article: Vajrala, B & Debore, S. J (2018). Level of Stress and Coping
Strategies among B. Sc. Nursing Students. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 6(3),
108-114. DIP:18.01.070/20180603, DOI:10.25215/0603.070

© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 114