Janice Farber
Moravian University, United States.
Abstract Title: Nursing Student Stress and Coping: How Nurse Educators Can Help Nursing Students Succeed in Nursing School
Biography:
Dr. Janice Farber has been a registered nurse for more than 35 years and is an Associate Professor and Director of the RN to BSN program at Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She has a background in the medical-surgical, critical care, and perioperative nursing specialties. Her experience as a nurse educator includes teaching freshman college students, traditional undergraduates, RN-BSN, and graduate nursing students. She teaches a variety of courses and content, which includes adult medical-surgical health, perioperative nursing, holistic assessment, nursing research, and theory and practice for nurse educators. Dr. Farber serves as Vice President of the Sigma Theta Tau Upsilon Alpha chapter of International Nursing. Her current research interests include how to improve the work life balance of nurse faculty and nurse faculty bereavement following the death of a nursing student. She is currently investigating traditional nursing students' perceived stress and coping behaviors with the intent to examine these relationships to curriculum and program changes longitudinally.
Research Interest:
Nursing students encounter stress throughout their academic career that impacts their emotional, physical, and psychological well-being, however, there is limited literature on specific coping behaviors and their effectiveness in managing high stress levels. The purpose of this research was to identify nursing student overall stress levels and describe the effective or ineffective coping behaviors used while in a nursing program. A descriptive correlational study was conducted on a population of pre-licensure baccalaureate sophomore, junior, and senior nursing students (N= 111) at a small university in the Northeastern United States. Data were collected using a survey of open-ended questions about personal stress and coping skills, the 10-Item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) (Cohen et al., 1983), and the Brief-Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (Brief- COPE) (Carver, 1997). Study results identified that nursing students are moderately stressed with the junior class having the highest stress scores. Narrative responses provide insight into the contributing factors to stress and include themes of academic workload, finances, personal and relationship concerns, and lack of balance. The most used coping behavior was emotion-focused coping. Overall, the nursing students coped through acceptance, planning, and active coping. Students reported that distractions were used to some degree of effectiveness but were short-lived. Stress is evident in nursing students in nursing programs, but a gap exists in identifying the effective behaviors students use to cope with stress. This presentation will identify opportunities to screen students and provide continual reassessment and support through faculty, peers, and academic and financial resources.