The level of stress and coping mechanism adopted by I Year B.Sc. nursing students

Background: Stress is a fact of life that every human deals with on a daily basis. In the transitional nature of student life in professional courses like nursing, initial period of course is stressful and it adversely affects the emotional, physical, social, and academic functions. Even though the perception and response to stress and way of coping differs individually, it may produce questionable behavioral patterns in student nurses during the course of their study like feeling of loneliness, nervousness, sleeplessness, and worrying. Thus, the student nurse faces a lot of challenges and problems at the time of I Year. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the level of stress and coping mechanisms adopted by I Year B.Sc. nursing students. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 I Year B.Sc. nursing students were selected by using non-probability convenient sampling technique. The tools used for data collection were perceived stress scale, structured coping scale, and socio- demographic proforma. Results: The studies revealed that majority of students (95.1%) were in the age group of 17-19 years. The results showed that only one student (1.7%) has severe stress, 46.7% has moderate stress, and remaining 51.6% has mild stress, and majority of the students (100) had average coping. There was no significant correlation (-1.167) between stress and coping mechanism of I Year B.Sc. nursing students. Conclusion: Majority of students had mild stress and average coping. The nurse administrator should plan and organize educational program for nursing students, in order to prepare them to cope up with any stressful situations. Hence, the researcher emphasizes the need for more research to improve the knowledge and by applying the research finding for future