Comparison of stress in freshman and senior nursing students.

Fernanda Carneiro Mussi,Luciana Santos Carneiro,Cláudia Geovana da Silva Pires,Andréia Ferreira dos Santos,Fernanda Michelle Santos e Silva Ribeiro,Ana Lúcia Siqueira Costa

doi:10.1590/s1980-220x2017023503431

Abstract

To compare stress levels in freshman and senior nursing students. A cross-sectional study was carried out in a public federal university of the state of Bahia, with students who answered questionnaires about sociodemographic variables, academic life, and a scale for assessing stress in nursing students. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were applied to analyze the relationship between variables. To assess proportional trends between ordinal variables and groups, a chi-square test for linear trend was applied. The significance level was 5%. One hundred and fifty-four students participated in the study. There was a tendency to higher stress levels among students in the last year compared to those in the first year, in four out of six domains: Performance of Practical Activities (p=0.00), Professional Communication (p=0.00), Environment (p=0.00) and Professional Education (p=0.00). High levels of stress were observed in students taking the last year. There is a need for broader research that includes other years of the course, an institutional reflection on stress factors and the adoption of an institutional policy that favors a better confrontation of stress factors.

Highlights

Stress is considered to be a predisposing, triggering or adjunct factor of several diseases[1,2,3]
Some studies have shown that academic life is a period when students are faced with different factors that can trigger stressful situations and harm their health and quality of life[1,7,8], since they have to manage their social and personal lives, as well as academic demands and preparation to their careers[7]
Senior students are exposed to similar factors, they may face a wider range of stressful situations since they are more concerned with their future market insertion, in actual practice, and are exposed to conflicts with other professionals and to competition with classmates[9]

Summary

Introduction

Stress is considered to be a predisposing, triggering or adjunct factor of several diseases[1,2,3] The presence of this phenomenon has been pointed out in many life sciences courses[4,5,6], especially in nursing undergraduate courses, in which students experience potentially stressful situations throughout the academic education process, inside and outside classrooms[7]. Freshman university students can be exposed to different levels of stress when compared to senior students Those who enter university seem to experience stressful situations regarding their adaptation to a new environment and their new condition, with new school obligations, academic education responsibilities, task organization needs, and the adaptation to new assessments and criteria, among others[7]. Last year students reported stressful situations that caused physical wear such as anxiety, fear and insecurity in the development of their graduation thesis, the heavy practice workload, the performance of practical activities, concerns with market insertion, difficulties in interpersonal relationships with classmates and finding a balance between study time and family life[10,11]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion