Primary Sources and Intensity of Stressors in an Associate Degree Nursing Program Student Population

Abstract

The common experience of student stress while completing a nursing education program has been universally acknowledged and documented throughout the literature. However, studies explicitly targeted on stressors for associate degree nursing students (ADN) are limited in the literature. The purpose of this project focused on understanding the primary sources and intensity of stressors in an ADN program student population, using descriptive research methods. Nursing students at a large, urban, public community college in Texas were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey which included demographic questions and Costa and Polak’s Instrument for the Assessment of Stress in Nursing Students. The participant sample had a majority percentage of students who identified as a racial or ethnic minority and a significant percentage of participants with low socioeconomic status. The study results confirmed the presence of stress during all four semesters of nursing school, with reported high and extreme levels of stress caused from both internal and external sources, as related to the students’ program of study. As ADN students have not often been studied with relation to nursing school stress, the findings of the project add important new data to the literature which can be used to build upon the base of knowledge in future research.