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Stress Levels of Nursing Students A Systematic.53
Stress Levels of Nursing Students A Systematic.53
Abstract
Context: Nursing students experience psychosocial stress in their workplace. Available statistics are at variance, and hence, the
need to know the overall prevalence of psychosocial stress among nursing students.
Aims: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of psychosocial stress among nursing students through meta-analysis.
Materials and methods: PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, CNKI, and China Biomedical Literature Service System were
searched for articles. Search terms include “psychosocial stress,” “nursing students.” Articles were included if they used validated
psychosocial stress assessment instruments. Of the 15 articles with data on stress prevalence, 8 met all inclusion criteria. Each
article was independently reviewed by the authors and relevant data were abstracted. Statistical analysis was done using Revman
4.1.
Results: Overall, the average score for stress among nursing students was 3.70 (95% confidence interval [CI]: [3.33, 4.06])
based on the analyzed 15 articles with a sample size of 9202.
Conclusion: This study showed that the stress level of intern nursing students was mainly moderate.
Abbreviations: AHRQ = the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, ASNS = Assessment of Stress in Nursing Students,
CNKI = China National Knowledge Infrastructure, PSS = the perceived stress scale.
Keywords: meta-analysis, nursing students, stress prevalence
1. Introduction to begin with, that prepares the body to handle the challenges
presented by an internal or external environmental challenge
Nursing is a profession that requires nursing students to (stressor), for example, the body’s physiologic responses to
have comprehensive theoretical knowledge and proficiency in trauma and invasive surgery serve to attenuate further tissue
clinical operations.[1] The purpose of clinical education is to damage. But if the exposure to a stressor is actually or per-
improve the professional knowledge and skill level of nursing ceived as intense, repetitive (repeated acute stress), or prolonged
students and to provide opportunities to translate their theory (chronic stress), the stress response becomes maladaptive and
into practice.[2] Some studies have shown that positive clinical detrimental to physiology, for example, exposure to chronic
experiences improve nursing students’ critical thinking skills, stressors can cause maladaptive reactions including depression,
and problem-solving abilities, and develop a sense of profes- anxiety, cognitive impairment, and heart disease.[9] More white
sional identity and belonging.[3] On the contrary, negative clin- matter abnormalities have been reported in children and ado-
ical experiences can reduce nursing students’ self-confidence, lescents with bipolar disease than in those with unipolar dis-
professional satisfaction, and sense of professional benefit.[4] ease. Importantly, more abnormalities have been documented
Clinical placements are an important part of nursing educa- in the brains of adolescents with bipolar depression than uni-
tion, but nursing students are often under greater stress during polar depression.[10] In addition, there is a close relationship
clinical placements due to their dynamic and challenging between stress and suicide which is frequently underreported.
nature.[5–7] Unfortunately, above 2% of traffic accidents (especially among
In the latest study, according to Brianna Chu[8], any physi- young adolescents) are suicide behaviors. This phenomenon
cal or psychological stimuli that disrupt homeostasis result in a may be underreported considering that suicides by car acci-
stress response. The stimuli are called stressors and physiologi- dents are reported as accidental in the national statistics. [11]
cal and behavioral changes in response to exposure to stressors Related studies have found that medical professionals have
constitute the stress response. The stress response is adaptive, higher levels of workplace stress and burnout compared to other
Y-XZ and J-RJ contributed equally to this work. Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.
The authors report no funding or conflicts of interest to disclose. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License 4.0 (CCBY-NC), where it is
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are permissible to download, share, remix, transform, and buildup the work provided
available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Additional it is properly cited. The work cannot be used commercially without permission
unpublished data is only available to authors. from the journal.
The corresponding author has full access to all data in the study and is ultimately
How to cite this article: Zheng Y-X, Jiao JR, Hao W-N. Stress levels
responsible for the decision to submit for publication.
of nursing students: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Medicine
a
Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, 2022;101:36(e30547).
China, b Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China.
Received: 8 July 2022 / Received in final form: 8 August 2022 / Accepted:
* Correspondence: Wen-Nv Hao, Department of Emergency, Affiliated Hospital
10 August 2022
of Inner Mongolia Medical University, No. 1 Tongdao North Road, Huimin District,
Hohhot 010050, Inner Mongolia, China (e-mail: haowennv@163.com). http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000030547
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Zheng et al • Medicine (2022) 101:36Medicine
jobs or occupations.[12] Nursing students can have higher levels the remaining articles was prepared, so that the quality of arti-
of stress compared to students in other healthcare-related profes- cles could be evaluated. For the systematic review, the PRISMA
sions.[13] In many countries, nursing students also tend to report guidelines were followed; in the first stage, screening, the title,
higher stress outcomes than other student groups,[14,15] and the and abstract of the remaining articles were carefully examined
clinical component of nursing education is more stressful than the and several irrelevant articles were excluded, considering the
theoretical component.[16] Studies have also shown that almost inclusion and exclusion criteria. In the second stage, that is, eli-
all nursing students experience moderate to high levels of stress gibility evaluation, the full text of the possible related articles
while working in the clinical setting[17] but there is a lack of data remaining from the screening stage were examined, and simi-
on the stress levels of nursing students. Accurate and compre- larly, at this stage, several other irrelevant studies were removed.
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hensive assessment and analysis of intern nursing students’ stress To prevent bias, all stages of resource review and data extraction
levels is important to promote the physical and mental health of were performed by 2 reviewers independently. If an article was
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intern nursing students, improve the quality of their practice, and not included, the reason for the exclusion was mentioned. In
enhance clinical teaching. The purpose of this study was to pro- cases where there was a disagreement between the 2 reviewers,
vide a study to explore the issue of stress among nursing students. the third person reviewed the article.
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Exclusion (n=745) 10 articles in Chinese. The most popular scales for measuring
duplicates (n=970) ①Review or meta-analysis stress levels were the perceived stress scale (PSS), the stress in
(n=38)
nursing students questionnaire (SINS), the student nurse stress
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Inclusion of meta-integrated
literature (n=15) 4. Discussion
Figure 2. Literature screening process and result. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review,
and meta-analysis to determine the prevalence of stress among
Table 1
Basic characteristics of included studies.
Reference Study design Date of data collection Country Instruments Sample Score (M±SD)
María Dolore cross-sectional 2017 Spain Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) 190 22.78 ± 8.54
Onieva-Zafra (2020)
Ewa Kupcewicz (2020) cross-sectional May 2018 to April 2019 Poland Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) 1002 18.60 ± 6.95,
18.55 ± 6.07,
18.66 ± 4.70,
Yanyan Zhao (2021) cross-sectional Not reported China Psychological Stress 2999 2.11 ± 0.73
Questionnaire for College Students (PSQCS)
Wafaa Aljohani (2021) cross-sectional April to June 2017 Saudi Arabia Stress in Nursing Students (SINS) 500 118.25 ± 24.29
questionnaire.
Yiru Zhu (2020) cross-sectional August 2017 to January 2018 China The Student Nurse Stress Index Scale 1076 85.37 ± 18.73
(SNSI-CHI)
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) 25.83 ± 5.95
the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS) 58.37 ± 13.66
Zhiqing Zhou (2015) cross-sectional June to September 2019 China Nursing Student Stressors Scale (Zhang Guixia) 590 84.42 ± 21.53
Luping Ding (2016) cross-sectional February to April 2015 China Nursing Student Internship Pressure Scale (Xiao Meilian) 460 1.34 ± 0.36
Lifeng Yang (2020) cross-sectional March to April 2019 China Stress Sources and Stress Level Evaluation 306 78.15 ± 15.93
Scale for Nursing Students in Practice (Chu Yanxiang)
Rujun Hu (2019) cross-sectional Not reported China Nursing student practice Stress scale(Lazarus) 121 1.43 ± 0.43
Yin Lin (2021) cross-sectional Not reported China Nursing Student Stressors Scale (Zhang Guixia) 422 59.41 ± 12.00
Zuqing Zhong (2011) cross-sectional 2009 China Nursing Student Stress Scale (self - made) 235 1.21 ± 0.51
Li Luo (2015) cross-sectional 2013–2014 China Nursing Student Stressors Scale (Zhang Guixia) 145 3.55 ± 0.87
Dengxin He (2021) cross-sectional February to May 2019 China Perceived Stress Scale(PSS) 252 21.6 ± 4.9
Feng Li (2021) cross-sectional December 2018 China College Student Stress Coping Personality Inventory 836 183.1 ± 28.7
Younkyung Lee (2014) cross-sectional 9th to 24th 2013 Korea The Korean version of Perceived 518 15.47 ± 5.49
Stress Scale (PSS)
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Table 2
Bias risk assessment results of included studies.
① ② ③ ④ ⑤ ⑥ ⑦ ⑧ ⑨ ⑩ ⑪ Score grade
nursing students in their internship. In this meta-analysis, the and lead to physical and mental illness,[38] affecting nursing
prevalence of stress among practicing nursing students was students’ ability to work in the clinic and even shaking their
estimated to be 61.97% (CI 95%: 41.013–80.823) using a ran- determination to pursue nursing. If nursing students lack appro-
dom effects model. Thus, the results suggest a high prevalence priate strategies to cope with stress and the negative effects of
of psychological stress among practicing nursing students, their work life, it will not only affect their personal physical and
which is very concerning. This is similar to the findings of Lin psychological health, but also affect their clinical professional
Bingchun, Cheng Qiuhong et al[34,35]. The reasons for this may competence, affect the quality of care, and lead to burnout.[39]
be analyzed as follows: first, nursing students enter an unfa- Therefore, the results obtained through this study suggest that
miliar clinical environment from the campus, a wide variety of attention should be focused on the stress level of intern nursing
nursing operations, and the gap between the theoretical knowl- students and bring it down to an appropriate level.
edge learned in school and clinical practice, which can bring Nursing students face multiple psychological stressors during
some psychological stress to the students.[36] Secondly, nursing their internship, and studies by Zhiqing Zhou,[25] Luping
students have less social experience and relatively less ability to Ding,[26] and Yanyan Zhao[21] have all shown that among the
communicate with people, and poor communication with their stressors of internship nursing students, employment stress is
supervising teachers, patients and families as well as complex the first stressor of nursing students during their internship. It
interpersonal relationships can bring corresponding stress.[37] is said that this may be related to the fact that the number of
Mild stress can stimulate the organism to be in a state of ten- nursing students graduating has been increasing year by year
sion and stimulate students to study, while high levels of stress in recent years, while the number of jobs offered by major hos-
or stress lasting too long can cause an imbalance in the organism pitals is becoming less and less, the employment situation is
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