INTRODUCTION:

Stress is a feeling experienced when a person thinks that the demands exceed the personal under social resources the individual is able to mobilize. Academic stress is invertable in assess educational institution¹. It is a specific response by the body to a stimulus that disturb normal functioning students are subjected to different kind of stressors such as the pressure of academics with an obligan to ruled². Students also face social, emotional, physical, and family problem. Nursing students are likely to experience more stress than their friends, colleague enrolled in other programs. Stress is defined as the process that occur in response to events that disrupt or threatens to our physical or psychological functioning³.

NEED FOR STUDY:

Stress is a common feature in all over lives, like anger or irritability, anxiety, and depression⁴.Nursing is one of the most important profession in the broad area of social welfare. Nurses are the heart and soul of hospital³. Nursing students have some academic stressors as other college students, but in addition they experience a clinical component which is highly stressful. Clinical source of stress include fear of unknown a new clinical environment, conflict between the theory and real clinical practice, also witnessing sickness suffering death, death care etc. The reason for academic stress may vary from state to state and institution. The level of stress exceed beyond its limit, it may leads to varies problems in students physical and mental health. If they are not treated properly they cannot perform to their maximum level, So there is a need to assess stress among first year BSc nursing students.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

A study to assess the level of stress among first year BSc nursing students in a selected college of nursing, Kottayam.

OBJECTIVES:

· To assess the level of stress among first year BSc nursing students

· To find the association between stress level and selected demographic variables

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:

· Assess:

Evaluate or estimation of level stress among first year BSc nursing students

· Stress:

Refers to the degree to which first year BSc nursing students experience academic stress in their academic life and is the total score obtained in a student nurse stres scale.

· First year BSc nursing students:

The students who have selected nursing as a profession with four years and exposed to biological, psychological and sociological and foundation of nursing subjects with clinical experience on their curriculum.

Assumption:

· First year BSc nursing students may experience academic stress more during their first year than of other academic year

· First year BSc nursing students may willingily participate in this study.

HYPOTHESIS:

H0 There is no significant association between stress level and selected demographic variables.

H1 There will be a significant association between stress level and selected demographic variables, such as medium of education in 10^th, duration of study and duration of sleep.

DELIMITATION:

· The study involve only 30 samples.

· This study is limited to first year BSc nursing students of a selected nursing college Kottayam

· The study uses simple random sampling technique which limit the generalization of findings.

Projected outcome:

This study is aimed to identify the level of stress among first year BSc nursing students.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

A descriptive study was conducted to assess the perceived stress and its contributing factors among nursing students in selected college of nursing, Bengaluru. The data where collected from among 110 students from first year BSc and GNM course were selected using proportionate stratified sampling technique. A standardized questionnaire was used to assess the stress and the contributing factors among students. The result of study shows that 7.27% of students has high level of stress and 54.55% of students has moderate stress and 38.18% of students has low level of stress.⁵

A descriptive study was conducted to assess stress level among nursing students. A total of 56 students participated in the study. Perceived stress scale was used as a tool to collect appropriate data. Sample was selected by simple random technique. The data was collected, analysed, interpreted and based on descriptive and inferential statistics. The result revealed that 90.2%of students having moderate stress having low stress and 5.9% having severe stress.⁶

METHODOLOGY:

Research Design:

The research design of the present study is descriptive design.

Setting of the study:

Setting of study is the Little Lourdes

College of Nursing Kidangoor

Population:

In this study, population is the first year

BSc nursing students

Sample:

In this study, sample is first year BSc nursing students of selected college, Kottayam

Sample size:

This study sample size consists of 30 first year BSc nursing students.

Sampling Technique:

Simple random sampling technique is used to select the samples

CRITERIA FOR SAMPLE SELECTION:

Inclusion Criteria:

Adult who,

· Are first year BSc nursing students

· Are available at the time of data collection

· Are the students of the college

Exclusion Criteria:

Adults who,

· Are not willing for data collection

· Are day scholars

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION:

Data collection Tool:

In this study the instrument is a modified student nurse stress scale with 15 statement related to stress level of first year BSc nursing students. Tool is developed by reviewing the literature and based on experts opinion.

Procedure for data collection

· Section A Demographic variables of sample

This section is designed to collect data such as gender, mode of stay, medium of education in 10^th, monthly income of family, duration of sleep, duration of sleep, duration of recreation

· Section B – Modified Student

Nurse Stress scale.

It consists of 15 statement regarding the stress first year BSc nursing students. The answer of which are recorded by respondents.

Scoring,

· Strongly agree - 4

· Agree - 3

· Uncertain - 2

· Disagree - 1

· Strongly disagree - 0

Maximum score is 60 and minimum score is 0. According to score obtained stress level is classified in to following

Score interpretation,

· 1-20 ; Mild stress

· 21-40 ; Moderate stress

· 41-60 ; Severe stress

Analysis of demographic variables:

Section A

The section deals with the distribution of students according to demographic variables which include gender, mode of stay, medium of education in 10^th, monthly income of family, duration of sleep, duration of recreation.

Table No.1 – Distribution of sample according to demographic data

Demographic variable	Frequency	Percentage
1.Gender
A)Male	0	0%
B)Female	30	100%
2.Mode of stay
a)Hostel	30	100%
b)Home	0	100%
3.Medium of education in 10^th
a)English	27	90%
b)Malayalam	3	10%
4.Monthly income of family
a)Less than 20000	12	40%
b)2000150000	15	50%
c)Greater than 50000	3	10%
5.Duration of study
a)1 hour or less	1	3.3%
b)2 – 3 hours	24	80%
c)4 – 5 hours	5	16.6%
6.Duration sleep
a)Less than 4 hour	9	30%
b)5-7 hours	21	70%
c)Greater than 7 hours	0	0%
7.Duration of recreation
a)None	5	16.6%
b)15-30 minutes	19	63.3%
c)More than 1 hour	6	20%

Fig; 1 Distribution of students according to medium of education

Fig; 2 Distribution of students according to duration of study

Fig: 3 Duration of students according to duration of sleep

Inference:

Data represented in figure 1 shows that among 30 students 27 students (90%) are from English medium and 3 students (10%) are from Malayalam medium.

Data represented in figure 2 show that among 30 students (3.3%) study one hour or less, 24 students (80%) study two to three hours and 5 students (16.6%) study four to five hours

Data represented in figure 3 shows that among 30 students, 9 students (30%) sleep less than four hour, 21 students (70%) sleep five to seven hours and no one sleep greater than seven hour.

Section B:

Distribution of sample based on the level of stress:

This section deals with the level of stress among first year BSc nursing students. This was assessed with the help of student nurse stress scale. The scale contains 15 statement and maximum score is 60 and minimum score is 0.

According to score obtained by each sample stress level is categorized into

Table No – 2 Scoring system of the stress scale

Score	Grade
1 to 20	Mild stress
21 to 40	Moderate stress
41 to 60	Severe stress

Table no – 3 Frequency distribution of sample according to the level of stress

Stress level	Frequency	Percentage
Mild stress	0	0%
Moderate stress	3	10%
Severe stress	27	90%
Grand total	30	100%

Data represented in table shows that among 30 students 3 students (10%) have moderate level of stress and 27 students (90%) have severe level of stress.

Fig: 4 Distribution of students according to level of stress

• Inference:

Data represented in figure 4 shows that among 30 samples 3 (10%) were having moderate level of stress 27(90%) were having severe level of stress.

Table no – 4

Variables	Mean	Standard deviation
Stress level	47.86	5.004

Association between demographic variables and stress level

Section C:

The section deals with the association of selected demographic variable such as medium of education in 10^th duration of study and duration of sleep.

Table no-5 Association between demographic variables and stress level

Variables	Chi square value	DF	Significance
Medium of education in 10th	0.363	2	No association
Duration of study	1.01	4	No association
Duration of sleep	1.469	4	No assosciation

The above table represents that there is no significant association between stress level of students with selected demographic variables like medium of education in 10^th, duration of study, duration of sleep.

DISCUSSION:

The present study was undertaken to asses the stress among first year BSc nursing students. The following headings.

· Findings related to the level of stress among first year BSc nursing students

· The present study findings shows among 30 sample 3 (10%) students have moderate level of stress and 27(90%) students have severe level of stress.

· Findings related to the association between the selected demographic variables and level of stress among first year BSc nursing student.

· The present study shows that there is no association between selected demographic variables and level of stress among first year BSc nursing students

RESULT:

The study shows that among 30 samples 3 students (10%) have moderate level of stress and 27 students (90%) have severe level of stress

NURSING IMPLICATION:

The nursing implication of the study cab be made in the following field by nursing practice and nursing research and nursing education.

a) Nursing practice:

The nurse should be periodically evaluated to assess the stress level and practice regarding stress management. In service education has to be planned to the need of nurses in managing stress by nonpharmacological method. Differenttypes of educational programs and orientation course having have to b conducted for the nurses from time to time.

b) Nursing education:

The curriculum of BSc nursing should include lesson on the stress, its effect on body and the stress management in detail. The student nurse should b given adequate exposure and training regarding coping mechanisms. Th nurse educator with stress.

c) Nursing Research:

Nurse researcher should conduct research on the way to manage stress among student nurses. This can improve scientific knowledge in nursing practice. The nurse researcher should conduct workshop, seminars and poster sessions and should publish research findings in journals to communicate to nursing

professionals

CONCLUSION:

The aim of the study was to assess the level of stress among first year BSc nursing students. The following conclusion was drawn from the findings of the study is 3(10%) of first year BSc nursing students have moderate level of stress and 27(90%) of the first year BSc nursing students have severe level of stress .There is no significant difference between stress level and selected demographic variables such as medium of education in 10^th, duration of study and duration of sleep

RECOMMENDATION:

· A similar study can be conducted with large sample so that the findings can be generalized

· A similar study can be conducted on different nursing student to assess the level of K

LIMITATION:

· The study is limited to a selected college of nursing in Kottayam

· The study is limited to small number of samples

· Generalization of study is not feasibile due to small sample size

REFERENCE:

1. KadamSurvarna, Dhakne Gokul, Core Pramod, Kanade Amol Bhagava t, Sarwan Shubangi, SaidPradnya.A study to assess the academic stress and copingStrategies used among the under graduate nursing students from selected College of Pune city. AJNER.2021; 11[2]:183-188

2. Tamil Elakiya, Shankar Shanmugam. Effect of aerobic dance movement Therapy on anxiety among first BSc Nursing students. IJCNE. 2021; 22[1]:57

3 Balachandran M.Psycholigy for nursing students.1st ed. Thiruvanathapuram: Maanas publisher; 2001; 432-433.

4 Dipti Singh, MonikaChaturvedi. Assess the level of stress among BSc nursing first Years students in selected colleges of Indore. Journal of Advance Practices in Nursing 2019; 4[1]:2-3.

5 Wosser Tenzin, Mathew Bindhu, Idiculla Yyothi. A study to assess the perceived stress and its contributing factor among nursing students during the initial period of their clinical posting in selected college of nursing. Bengaluru with a view to develop a preclinical sensitization programme. IJANM.2020; 8(4):331-334.

6 Jamin Chauhan, Sharon Rai, Janki. Patel, Trupti Sonera, Charmi Patel, Megha Patel, Joslin Christie, KailashBamaniya. A Descriptive study to assess the level of stress Among first year BSc nursing students at Manikaka Topawala Institute of Nursing Charusat, Change. IJANM. 2018; 4[2]:31-35.

Received on 01.05.2023 Modified on 16.05.2023

Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2023; 11(3):202-206.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2652.2023.00046