Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
students who were present in class when the researcher visited the
university, were invited to complete the questionnaires.
Ethical considerations:
Ethical approval was granted by the university research ethics
committee. The students were informed regarding the study and
had permission to leave the study setting, if they chose not to
participate. The voluntary nature emphasised that the students
could refuse without penalty if they chose not to participate. The
students were informed of the aim of the study and were provided
with a written consent. The questionnaires were distributed by the
researcher to the students in the class setting. Questionnaires
remained anonymous. The researcher was an independent person
who was not employed in the university or known to the students.
Design:
A descriptive survey design was employed to address the research
question. A modified questionnaire using the Student Nurse Stress
Index (SNSI) (Jones & Johnston, 1997) and the Ways of Coping
questionnaire (Parkes, 1984) were used to investigate stress and
coping respectively. The 36-item questionnaire was distributed to
the students (n=129) from within the three branches of nurse
training (General, Intellectual Disability and Psychiatry (Mental
Health). There was a 35% response rate however this is based on
the total number of students registered on the programme, not the
actual amount of students who attended class, which was observed
to be considerably low, when the researcher visited the students in
the university setting.
Data Analysis:
The statistical software package for social sciences (SPSS) was
employed to analyse data with descriptive and inferential statistics.
The highest noted stressors and ‘ways of coping’ were identified
among both cohorts. The demographic profile (including branch of
training, gender, age group and year of training) were compared
with the highest noted stressors among both cohorts. The highest
noted ways of coping were similarly compared with the
demographic profile. Non-parametric testing including the Mann–
Whitney U test and the Kruskal - Wallis test was used.
Findings / Discussion:
Findings illustrated that similar stressors were experienced in 1 st
and 2 nd year of training. The key stressors were ‘examinations’,
‘fear of failing the course’, ‘amount of classwork to be learned’ and
‘difficulty of classwork to be learned’ which are in keeping with the
literature (Beck & Srivastava, 1991, Lindop, 1991, Hamill, 1995,
Jones & Johnston, 1997). The levels of stress experienced were
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