Stress-Generating Factors During Clinical Practice in Nursing Students

Abstract

Objective: To describe the factors that are most stressful for second-, third-, and fourth-year nursing students during the development of clinical practice, as well as to establish their relationship with certain sociodemographic characteristics. Material and method: A cross-sectional, descriptive, comparative, and correlational study was conducted with 70 nursing students enrolled during 2022–2023 at the National University of Piura. The KEZKAK questionnaire was used as the measurement instrument; it assesses stress-causing factors during the clinical practice of nursing students. This questionnaire showed a high level of validity and reliability. Data collected were statistically analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 software, applying Fisher’s Exact Test. Results: Two factors were found to be significantly related (Sig. < 0.05) to certain sociodemographic characteristics. The stress-generating factor related to faculty members was significantly associated with years of study, while emotional involvement was significantly associated with student age (0.011 and 0.010), both values being lower than the theoretical value of 0.05. Conclusions: Students aged 17–18 years and those aged 22 years and older showed greater emotional involvement. Higher dissatisfaction was evident in the factor related to interactions with faculty across all years of study. However, second-year students were the most dissatisfied, as indicated by the significance tests, with both cases below the theoretical value of 0.05.