First-year Finnish nursing students rarely face stress in their clinical learning environment. However, in their second study year, their stress increase to moderate levels. During the PhD study of Hanish Bhurtun, MPH, RN, a tool was further developed that can accurately measure the stress levels and stressors that nursing students perceive in their clinical training. It measured stress in four dimensions including lack of knowledge and clinical skills; workload and clinical settings; teachers and nursing staff; and caring for patients. The public examination of the doctoral thesis will be held in English online on 6 November 2020 starting at 12 noon.
Nursing students reported that the main stressors that they faced were from lack of professional knowledge and skills, assignments and workload, and the clinical settings where their training takes place. Mostly students coped from these stresses using emotion-based coping strategies, such as watching television and sleeping longer. There were some differences in the extent students reported using these coping strategies from the first to the second study year.
The findings of this study are essential for nurse mentors, nursing lecturers and nursing curriculum developers because it provides direction on the foreseeable evolution of stress and coping strategies. Using the findings of this study, nursing lecturers can develop effective support systems that may alleviate the stresses that nursing students face, consequently facilitating learning in their clinical training, which is an important learning environment.
The doctoral dissertation of Hanish Bhurtun, Master of Public Health, entitled Stress and coping strategies among Finnish nursing students in the clinical learning environment, will be examined at the Faculty of Health Sciences. The Opponent in the public examination will be Docent Anna-Liisa Aho of Tampere University, and the Custos will be Professor Hannele Turunen of the University of Eastern Finland. The public examination will be held in English.
Photo available for download at https://mediabank.uef.fi/A/UEF+Media+Bank/37823?encoding=UTF-8
Dissertation available online https://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-3474-1/
Public examination online https://stream.lifesizecloud.com/extension/5551026/36a92f54-525c-4b42-9a56-56d4dd3e751c