Stress and Coping Among Nursing Students During the Introductory Internships Training

Abstract

Background: Introductory internships are essential in the nursing profession. Nursing students are often new to nursing and caregiving and are learning to deal with many different people and situations. As a result, they are exposed to many types of stress in their internship. Strategies to cope with these stressors are crucial because the stressors can negatively impact the students’ learning and performance. The objective of this study was to examine the stressors in introductory internships and the coping strategies employed by first-time nursing interns. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 266 nursing students from a junior college of medicine, nursing, and management in northern Taiwan. A questionnaire that consisted of the participants’ basic information, a stress of internship scale, and a coping strategies scale was administered to the participants. The data were analyzed using SPSS 22 statistical software. Results: The stress of assignments and workloads was the primary stressor perceived by the interns (2.81 ± 0.79). The overall status of stressors in the internship program was at a moderate level, with a mean of 2.43 (SD = 0.52). However, the students tended to adopt ineffective coping strategies more frequently when they perceived a high level of stress from nursing personnel (r = .12, p < .05), peers (r = .15, p < .05), lack of professional knowledge and skills (r = .14, p < .05), internship environment (r = .15, p < .05) and overall stress of the clinical internship program (r = .17, p < .01). The most common coping strategy used was problem-based coping (3.0 ± 0.48), followed by ineffective coping strategies and emotion-focused coping. Conclusions: The results of this study shed light on the stressors exposed to first-time nursing interns and the coping strategies used by the students. The findings can serve as a reference for college educators and clinical instructors to teach the students how to cope with the stress of their internship through positive and active strategies.