Evaluation of stressors in clinical education from the perspective of nursing students of Mashhad School of Nursing and Midwifery

Clinical education is a stressful experience, especially in the nursing profession that they deal with human lives. Therefore, identifying the stressful factors of clinical education is a necessity. The aim of this study was to investigate the stressful factors of clinical education of nursing students in different semesters.

 In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the research sample consisted of 131 nursing students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences who were selected by census method in 2016. Data collection tools was a researcher-made questionnaire that included the stressful factors of clinical education in six domains related to the nature of the discipline (4 items), the instructor (9 items), the clinical environment (9 items), the patient (12 items), student (16 items) and educational system (4 items) were examined.

 Based on the findings of this study, the highest stress of subjects was in the field of instructor (15.2 ± 20.6), clinical environment (12.9 ± 5.9) and student (12.1 ±6.8). There was no statistically significant difference between students of different semesters in the nature of the field, but this difference was significant in other areas (p < 0.001).

The stressors have a negative effect on students' academic performance, physical and mental health. Therefore, it seems necessary for managers to understand the stressors in clinical education and act properly to reduce it, such as familiarization of students with the concept of stress and ways to confront with it like relaxation, exercise and music from the beginning of the course through educational programs, academic and psychological counselling, change the structure of teamwork, managerial reforms, and increase social support.