Impact of time management program on stress and coping strategies adopted by nursing students with regard to academic performance

Abstract

Because nurses must interact with a variety of people in a variety of situations, nursing is an emotionally taxing and extremely stressful vocation on various times of the day and circumstances. To look at the coping mechanisms nursing students use to deal with the stress of their studies and clinicals. High levels of stress can have negative effects on learning, coping, academic performance, and retention in nursing students as well as memory, focus, and problem-solving skills. There have been no studies explicitly involving nursing students, but college students with higher levels of learnt resourcefulness tend to be more motivated, self-assured, and academically persistent.At a chosen health science university in Mangalore, 320 undergraduate students participated in a descriptive-correlative study. Utilizing disproportionate stratified sampling approaches, the samples were chosen. Researcher used various tool such as time management questionnaire, Student Nurse Stress Index and self-prepared tool for academic performance. The mean post-test stress score (65.79±8.79) ranging from 31 to 86 was lower than the mean pre-test stress score (70.77±9.01) ranging from 36 to 95. The mean time management during post-test (110.88±15.08) was higher than that of pre-test (98.14±11.46). The mean stress score during post-test (65.79 ± 8.79) was lower than that of pre-test (70.75±9.02). The mean academic performance score during post-test (26.52±4.84) was higher than that of pre-test (22.79±3.90). Majority of samples (71.6%) were having good level of time management followed by 27.5% having average and 0.9% having excellent time management score during pre-test. Where as in post-test, most of the samples had (83.8%) good time management score followed by 8.8 % having excellent and 7.5 % having average The results also showed that 65.6% were having moderate level of stress followed by 31.9% having high and 2.5 % having low stress level, where as in post-test, most of the samples had (81.9%) moderate stress score followed by 13.1 % having high and 5% having low stress score. The data regarding academic performance states that 73.4% were having average academic performance score followed by 24.7 % having poor and 1.9% having good academic performance. Where as in post-test, majority of the samples had (64.1%) average academic performance score followed by 23.4 % having good and 12.5 % having poor academic performance score.This study reveals that the stress load is directly related to poor academic performances and a good strategy adaptation will definitely bring a fruitful result in nursing students for their carrier development.