An Exploratory Study To Assess The Level Of Stress And Associated Stressors During Covid-19 Pandemic Among Nursing Students Attending Virtual Classes From Home In A Selected College Of Nursing, Delhi, With A View To Disseminate Stress Management Techniques

Ms. Sheljy Shajan, Ms. Karthika Krishnan, Ms. Himanshi Sharma, Ms. Himanshi Bhirani, Ms. Tanu Singh, Ms. Archana Mishra, Ms. Niharika, Ms. Yuvika Khatri

Stress, Stressors, Virtual Classes, Stress Management Techniques.

An Exploratory study was conducted to assess the level of stress and associated stressors during Covid -19 pandemic among nursing students attending virtual classes from home in a selected college of nursing, Delhi, with a view to disseminate stress management techniques. The main objectives of the study were to assess the level of stress among nursing students attending virtual classes from home during Covid-19 pandemic, to explore the stressors associated with virtual classes during Covid-19 pandemic, to determine the association of the level of stress of nursing students with the selected demographic variables and to disseminate Stress Management techniques. A quantitative research approach with exploratory research design was used to achieve the objectives of the study. The study was conducted at St.  Stephen’s Hospital College of Nursing, Tis Hazari, Delhi-110054. Total enumerative sampling technique was adopted to select 200 students belonging to B.Sc. and G.N.M. 2nd and 3rd year classes. A Standardized rating scale by Sheldon Cohen and a structured rating scale was used to assess the level of stress and associated stressors, respectively, during Covid-19 pandemic among nursing students attending virtual classes. The tool was validated by 5 experts from the field of Psychiatry, Psychology, Medical –Surgical Nursing and Child health Nursing. The reliability of tool was established at 0.75 by split half method. The data gathered was analyzed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics. In the present study, it was observed that majority of the nursing students 154(77%) have moderate level of stress, 37(18.5%) have high level of stress and remaining 9(4.5%) have low level of stress. The study showed that the maximum amount of stress was due to academic factors while they had minimal stress due to financial factors. The results of the analysis showed that there was an unreasonable academic overload, insufficient time to study due to the vast content of courses covered, high family expectations and low levels of motivation were some of the reasons for the stress. Fear of failure was the primary cause of stress. Findings related to association of level of stress with demographic variables reveals that there was significant association between level of stress and family monthly income and father’s employment at 0.05 level of significance. There was no significant association between level of stress and the year of course, type of family, no. of sibling, father’s education, mother's education and mother’s employment at 0.05 level of significance.  As the academic stress was the most experienced stress among nursing students studying in selected College of Nursing, Delhi, so framing the academic curriculum, examination patterns and establishment of counselling cells about coping and adapting strategies to cope up with stress and associated stressor experienced during Covid -19 pandemic is needed. 

https://doi.org/10.31871/IJNTR.9.9.11