STRESSFUL EVENTS AND WAYS OF COPING OF BACCALAUREATE STUDENT NURSES IN THE CLINICAL LABORATORY.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 124
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purposes of this exploratory study were: (1) to identify and describe events in the clinical laboratory that are stressful to baccalaureate student nurses; (2) to determine how student nurses cope with those stresses; and (3) to determine whether there is a relationship between categories of stress reported and types of coping utilized.

The sample consisted of 246 volunteers from ten National League for Nursing accredited generic baccalaureate nursing programs in New York State. The subjects were either in the first semester of a nursing course with a clinical laboratory experience or had just completed the first semester of a nursing course with a clinical laboratory experience.

The critical incident technique was the basis of data collection for the stressful event and the pencil-and-paper format was utilized. The Ways of Coping Scale developed by Lazarus and Folkman was utilized to determine the type of coping mode employed during the stressful event.

The categories of stressful events were: initial experience, feeling incompetent, evaluation, therapeutic communication, interpersonal relationships, and physical care. The findings suggest that the major combined sources of stress are not patient care but are related to components of the educational process in the clinical laboratory.

Although the majority of subjects used predominantly more problem-focused coping than emotion-focused coping, it cannot be concluded that the proportion of subjects who used primarily problem-focused coping differ as a function of the category of stressful events. The findings of this study suggest that even though the majority of respondents used predominantly problem-focused coping, there is a minority of respondents who tend to employ emotion-focused coping more frequently than problem-focused coping.

Informal evaluation and instructor-student relationships emerged as both primary and secondary factors in inducing stress in the clinical laboratory. Nurse educators should be aware of the effects of the evaluative process and the impact of interpersonal relationships in planning and implementing the clinical laboratory experience to enhance learning.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: B, page: 5233.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1988.

School code: 0055.