Stress, anxiety, and depression among nursing studentsName:

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Stress, anxiety, and depression among nursing studentsNursing has been considered over time as one of the most stressful professions across the world. In the medical arena, nurses are still the most group to record high mental health issues as compared to other practitioners in the medical facilities. Nursing students go through a lot of new experiences during their studies. Some go to nursing schools fresh out of childhood and barely exposed to certain phenomena such as dead bodies. Various work-related factors the student nurses experience during their practices have been associated with the high prevalence of mental disorders such as anxiety, stress, and depression among the nursing students.

The mental health of nurses is important because working under stress, anxiety, and depression may lead to occupational accidents, poor performance at work, and poor attitude at the workplace. The health of nurses should also be taken into account since they spend most of the time with the patients and underlying mental disorders could cause poor attendance of patients, endangering of the lives of the patients, and clinical ineffectiveness, which is a bad look for the entire medical facility. Both the nurse and the medical facility could lose their credibility in the market due to the damaged reputation and poor efficiency.

Statement of the purpose

Studies can generally be stressing, and all kinds of student tend to develop mental issues such as anxiety and depression. Students generally go through a rough patch of the lives during campus and college studies. Nursing student falls under this category of people and have similar experiences as most of the other students in different career paths CITATION Ber16 l 1033 (Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, Caitlin Slevin, Lisa Militello, Jacqueline Hoying, Alice Teall, Colleen McGovern, 2016). Issues arise due to stressors such as interpersonal relations with fellow students, intrapersonal conflict, and even external issues such as the economy.

In the medical field, lots of factors contribute to mental disorders apart from just learning. Student nurses have to go through intense and exhausting activities both in the labs and the hospital where they carry out their practices. Such experiences may affect the student even in their adulthood since they experience stress at a very young age as they are learning. Stress can also slow the learning process among the students, which may in overall reduce the overall chances of achieving academic success. The prevalence of mental disorders is quite high in medical students especially the nurse which is what prompted looking into the mental health of student nurses to save a generation from poor productivity and inefficiency in the healthcare systems.

Hypothesis

Many students have been spotted as exhibiting weird behaviours in colleges which are directly related to their relationships and the environment. Before the study, it was expected that the students would exhibit some mental health issues or rather have an explanation to their way of living and the way they conduct themselves day in day out.

Sample

The study was conducted on a sample of 242 undergraduate nursing students of over 18 years at a public university in U. S. A. all the sampled students were enrolled in the Baccalaureate Nursing Program. A similar study was conducted on a sample of 93 health sciences students from seven different colleges in the Midwest United States. Adequate first-year graduate students of health sciences were recruited from the seven colleges. They were informed of the study following a seminar on interprofessional education and practice whereby students were emailed and issued with fliers. A total of 93 of the students sanctioned. The students consented in recruitment and were all 18 years and above.

Method

Data was collected through a survey whereby students were surveyed online. They received the pre-survey email alongside the recruitment brochures and the survey links, other email follows up and the last appreciation word. The survey was 15 minutes long, and each student received a $10 incentive for completing the survey. The other study, on the other hand, data was collected through CheckboxR survey software and biometric screens. The checkbox consisted of demographics, the Healthy Lifestyle Beliefs Scale, Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), General Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), Brief Inventory of Perceived Stress (BIPS), and single items regarding healthy lifestyle behaviours such as physical activity and smoking. The students were recruited into the study with their full consent. Emails and flyers were sent out to the students after the seminar on interprofessional education and practice.

Results

A total of 242 nursing students completed the survey. From the sample, 30% of the students were obese, 56.8% were sedentary. Approximately 66.7% of the student reported poor sleep, 56.6% reported symptoms of anxiety, and 54.5% reported symptoms of depression.

From the other study, approximately 40% of the sample was overweight, while 19% of the students reported elevated total cholesterol levels. 40% of the students reported elevated depressive symptoms, and further, 28 % of the students reported elevated anxiety. Inverse relationships were also recorded among depression and anxiety, and healthy lifestyle beliefs with four students reporting suicidal thoughts tendencies. 44% of the students, which is below half of them, registered active participation in the recommended 30 minutes exercise 5 days a week.

Students, especially in colleges, have mental issues which cause the unusual behavior they often exhibit. The issues are derived from the various relationships in the school system. Poor sleep and sedentary is associated with depression and anxiety CITATION Yua18 l 1033 (Yuan Zhang, Anya Peters, Guanling Chen, 2018). This could lead to the poor performances of the student in their studies which may force the faculty to retain or let go of most of the student who may not make to an average in their classwork. Those who struggle through may end up with the mental disorder even in their adulthood which tends to interfere with the workability of the nurses in the future.

The students were also determined to indulge in poor eating habits with limited or no physical activity and exercises. According to the above results, 30% of the nursing students turned out to be overweight with poor physical activity and exercise. From the wellness assessment study, only 44% of the students met the recommended physical exercise requirements, while approximately 40% of the students were reportedly obese. Such may contribute to the magnitude of depression or even be one of the contributing stressors to the mind of the students in colleges. The lifestyle of most of the students is not up to standards which contribute to the mental issues associated with them.

In summary, students, especially in medical schools, are exposed to several potential triggers to mental disorders such long study hours, repetitive and exhausting routine, personal issues, poor relationships with others, and external factors such poverty and economical liabilities. The above stressors contribute to the development of common health issues such as lack of sleep, poor eating habits, depression, stress, and anxiety.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, Caitlin Slevin, Lisa Militello, Jacqueline Hoying, Alice Teall, Colleen McGovern. (2016). Physical health, lifestyle beliefs and behaviours, and mental health of entering graduate health professional students: Evidence to support screening and early intervention. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 204-211.

Yuan Zhang, Anya Peters, Guanling Chen. (2018). PerceivedStressMediatestheAssociations betweenSleepQualityandSymptomsofAnxiety andDepressionamongCollegeNursingStudents. InternationalJournalofNursingEducationScholarship , 1-9.