ACADEMIC STRESS AND COPING STRATEGIES AMONG STUDENT NURSES IN COLLEGES OF NURSING SCIENCES IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This is a cross sectional study that explored the academic stress and coping strategies among the student nurses in Colleges of Nursing in Anambra State, Nigeria. A total of 366 respondents were proportionately drawn from a total of 1,894 students through Taro Yamene formula for sample size calculation. A validated questionnaire that was tested for internal consistency was used for data collection. Ethical approval (NAUTH/CS/66/VOL.16/VER.3/58/2024/04)was obtained from the REC, NAUTH, Nnewi. Data collected were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS IBM Version 25. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was used to test the relationship between Colleges of Nursing student coping strategies. Independent sample t-test was also used to examine differences between the students’ training institutions and their sources of academic stress, and also between institutional training of the student and stress coping strategies of nursing students.Multiple regression was employed to analyze the association between the demographic variables of the students and their stress coping strategies with value of P < 0.05  considered to be statistically significant.Study revealed that a good number of the student nurses(52.7%) in Colleges of Nursing Sciences in Anambra State experience academic stress of which 78.0% saw the amount of class work materials to be learned as a source of stress and a greater number (67.5%) were of the opinion that financial problem causes stress to them. Coping strategies applied by student nurses include: seeking professional support from senior nurses, listening to music or watching movies, family moral support, and others. Positive correlation was found between the students’ training institution and their source of stress. Study showed that there is an association between the demographic variables of the students and their stress coping strategies and there is no association between type oftraining institution and stress coping strategies among the students.