Changes in nursing educational stress and coping strategies: a longitudinal study in the Czech Republic

Introduction: Long-term stress is generally considered to be one of the psycho-social factors that negatively affect the academic performance of nursing students. Objectives: To discover the sources of stress, degree of stress, and coping strategies used as a reaction to stress in nursing students of the bachelor program. Methods: Over the course of three academic years, students in each year of the bachelor in nursing program were monitored after completing the clinical practice for the given academic year. Questionnaires regarding the Perceived Stress Scale;Physio-Psycho-Social Response Scale, and Coping Behaviour Inventory were used to gather data. In the first year, 44 students were included, in the second year there were 39 students, and in the final year 40 students took part in the research. Results: The most significant source of stress appears to be a lack of knowledge and relevant skills. The highest degree of stress was recorded at the beginning of a student’s studies, after which it decreased. In the third year, when students were required to work due to the covid pandemic, the stress again reached the levels of the first year. The stress manifested mainly in emotions and problem solving was the most frequently used coping strategy. Conclusions: The results of the longitudinal study confirmed how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the perception and manifestation of stress in students during their studies. The perception of the degree of clinical and academic stressors showed that no clear descending tendency was identified. The use of coping strategies was stable, with no significant differences throughout the study. © 2022 The Authors.