Stress and Its Influence on the Academic Success of Nursing Students in Swat: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: The students of Nursing are under heavy stress because of the demanding studies and Clinical training. Nursing education is composed of theoretical training and clinical tasks thus they must be familiar with assignments, presentations, continuous assessment assessments, theory examinations as well as clinical skills within a restricted period of time. As the load goes high and higher than the limit of the students, stress levels rise among the students. Moreover, stress may have an adverse impact on a particular person, who can have issues with fulfilling his/her needs and requirements.

0bjectives: To determine the correlation between academic performance of students in various Nursing colleges in Swat on stress.

Methodology: This research was conducted in various Nursing Colleges in Swat and 132 participants were used in a simple random sampling technique. Data collection was done through the self-administered questionnaires. The current study is aimed at determining the academic performance and variables related to stress among undergraduate students. The study involved a cross-sectional descriptive study period of 15 August to 15 November 2024.

Results: The findings indicate that the major stressors were academic pressure, clinical practice, and workload, and 68 percent of the students mentioned academic pressure and 61 percent said that they were stressed by clinical practice. The results showed a strong negative correlation between the stress and the academic performance (r = -0.35, p = 0.01) and thus, the high levels of stress correlate with low levels of academic performance. The research also demonstrates that moderate stress is common in most students with assignments and workload the greatest contributors. Problem-solving and optimism were among the common coping strategies, and there was also a lack of institutional support towards stress management. The version of the SPSS 22.0 was used to analyze the data.

Conclusion: The findings of the study revealed that moderate stress is an issue among the undergraduate students of nursing. The most common causes of pressure mentioned include the most frequent ones, responsibility and tasks, stress due to rigid BSN schedule, and stress due to dealing with patients. This paper reveals that stress management intervention should be recommended to enhance academic performances among Nursing Students in Swat.