Introduction
Research indicates that stress levels in nursing schools are higher than those enrolled in any other school. The interactions created between study and student conditions at the school can compromise their emotional and mental health. These relations comprise the self-sufficiency of the students’ regarding tasks, the level of fulfilment to accomplish work activities and the conventional work relations. In addition to these features, the content of the task are factors that may lead to stress among students. Students are often exposed to unbalanced study timetables due to the massive load of responsibilities compulsory in the nursing program. The nursing students may be forced to study in the daytime but outspread it to the night to complete all the tasks and study for tests. The requirement to fulfil these obligations compromises sleep causes daytime sleepiness, and intensify health alteration risk.
Scholars have intended to explore the leading coping style with stress in nursing students, their interaction with stressful life proceedings, personality behaviours, and mood changes during academic education. Ideally, stress is inevitable in daily life, but it can affect individuals psychologically and physically when it is magnified due to difficult educational programs. Small amounts of anxiety may help individuals become more creative; however, when stress becomes irresistible, an individual may develop adverse dangers of pressure (Rizzolo, Zipp, Simpkins,2009). Unfavorable results of stress include but are not limited to depression, increased anxiety, and engaging in unhealthy behaviours such as smoking, poor dietary habits and poor’s sleep habits. Some of the ways of preventing stress in the nursing students program include;
Formulating And Implementing Stress Management Programs
According to research by Goldsmith, Miller, Lee et al. (2009), nursing is one of the delicate fields of study as it involves interacting with patients. Increased stress levels among the nursing students may decrease their empathy towards the patients they serve. Therefore, it is vital to formulate and implement stress management programs to prevent stress among nursing students. This way, it becomes effective to offer the nurses counselling and education on managing their anxieties. Most scholars indicate that it is normal to be stressed by the nursing curriculum. However, formulation of stress management programs would help the students to be prepared to face the anxieties, the hard tests and changing working environments. Stress management strategies help students know their stress levels to have sufficient coping mechanisms or techniques to help them deal with their anxiety (Wagner,2017). Therefore, it is vital to assist students in developing efficient stress management techniques to help them moderate the negative effects of stress. Stress management programs should focus on identifying the causes of the stress; knowing what causes the students to be stressed assists in coming up with approaches to managing those stresses or relaxation techniques.
Promoting Open Communication Among the Nurses
Researchers have found out that students in health science programs experience increased stress over time, which may negatively affect the student’s performance. Nursing students are educated to understand health-related issues and how the human body operates; they are prepared to offer patient care to treat illnesses, improve health, control, and prevent diseases. The health students have an intensive curriculum and participate in patient care, contributing to increased stress levels. While all the subsets of college students experience stress during examinations, career decisions, and financial hardships, students in the health profession have added responsibilities of delivering patient care (Dyrbye, Thomas, Shanafelt, 2006). Most of the nursing decisions directly impact the patients they serve hence adding to the stress caused by the program itself. To control or reduce the increased anxiety among the nurses, it is vital to create open communication to speak out their minds. Open communication is a key approach to managing stress. When a person communicates about the issues disturbing them, it relieves them. Similarly, communication creates an environment of interaction and collaboration, which is vital in controlling stress. Open communication helps control stress by ensuring it does not reach a boiling point or cause more damage to the person.
Accelerated Curriculum
Nursing students overwhelmed by stress can eventually suffer adverse risks, which may affect them both physically and mentally. It can lead to a decline in academic performance, irritability among peers and an overall decline in mental and physical health. Stress that emerges from academics may likely continue into one’s professional career (Ferreira & Martino, 2012). The health care institutions should investigate stress overtime to make appropriate recommendations based on the results; key solutions may include the integration of an accelerated curriculum. The health care education program should be adjusted to offer flexibility. The accelerated curriculum should be designed to cater to the nurses’ health benefits and minimize their stress. According to stress management theory, the environmental setting can cause anxiety. To reduce the students’ stress levels, the health institution should create a conducive environment. According to research by Hernandez, Blavo, Hardigan, et al. (2010), students in health professions perceive stress differently and can have a profound negative effect on them. The researchers recommend the institution undertake regular evaluation and try to minimize stress, when possible, for students in healthcare-based education tracks. The curriculum should be accelerated to become flexible, running an accelerated time frame to offer nursing education using effective teaching and learning approaches suitable for their wellbeing. The students should handle what they can, reducing the chances of increased stress levels.
Creating a Conducive Environmental Setting
According to Balch, Freischlag, & Shanafelt (2009), a healthy working environment establishes a climate where nurses are challenged to use their expertise, skills and criminal knowledge. Without an excellent environment for studies, the nurses may be exposed to increased distress, affecting their performance. The health care environment should be conducive. Incorporating a conducive working and nursing study environment into daily nursing practices would result in more positive experiences. The environment should offer effective management of the nurses, control over their nursing practices and a culture that values their wellbeing.
Similarly, the nursing study environment should promote good nurse-physician relationships. The nurses should be involved in decision making and their preferences respected. Also, the environment should ensure smooth transition and changes that do not affect the mental and emotional well-being of the nursing students (Moreira & Furegato, 2013). In other words, the environment forms the main causal of stress among the nurses. Therefore, to deal with increased stress levels among them, it is vital to analyze the background setting to ensure it is suitable and conducive.
Conclusion
In summary, the nursing program is stressful. Psychological studies have found it’s more stressful than just about any other academic program. Like any other medical program, it entails having a huge amount of information to learn fully and quickly. Stress in the nursing program can result from poor time management, having a lot to handle, the environmental setting, and the curriculum that is not flexible. Therefore, it is vital to implement and formulate stress management techniques or programs to control stress in the nursing program. The other approach to minimizing stress among nurses is by promoting open communication to share the problematic issues before it causes massive damage. The other thing is to create a conducive studying environment that supports the well-being of the nurses’ students. In other words, the nursing program is one of the required courses in society as it entails improving the patient’s health controlling their illnesses and treating them. Since increased stress among the nurses may directly affect their performance, it is important to use those approaches to reduce their stress levels.
References
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