Research in Medical Education

  Introduction: In clinical practices, nursing students who have to work in a real professional environment, are faced with stressful situation. Although some stress is good, too much can result in disrupting learning process. This study aims to investigate the kind and intensity of the stressors nursing clinical practices from viewpoint of nursing students in Qazvin nursing school.

  Methods: In a descriptive cross-sectional study 93 nursing students participated. They had completed a course of clerkship and were chosen by stratified random in the second half of 2007-2008. A research – made questionnaire which its validity and reliability was confirmed through content validity and test-retest, respectively, was used. Data was analyzed by T-Test through SPSS.

  Results : This study showed that the stress of clinical practices among the students is in moderate level (the mean and standard deviation was (1.86 0.7) severe stress had been reported in second year students. From students viewpoints, personal factors including fear of doing mistake and failure and Tutor-related factors are most stressful factors respectively. Based on Likert Scale the mean of stress score were as follow: environmental factors (1.68 0.7), patient care- related factors (1.75 0.7), Tutor related factors (2.1 0.9), clinical staff-related factors (1.91 0.9) and personal factors (2.17 0.9).

  Conclusion: Regarding to the most stressful factors such as fear of doing mistake and failure in nursing, Tutor should teach nursing students about concept of stress and how to control and cope with stressful situation in clinical environment before attending in clinical practices as well. Obviously, students need their tutors’ support while they are working in clinical setting.