Determinants of Stress and Its Association with Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students of Nursing in Pakistan

Abstract

Nursing education consists of theoretical education and clinical duties; therefore, they have to deal with assignments, presentations, continuous assessment tests, theory exams, and clinical skills within a limited time frame. When the load increases beyond the students' limit, stress increases among them. In this regard, the focus of current study is to find out the academic performance and factors that are associated with stress in undergraduate students. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from June to August 2023 with a sample size of 260 using a simple random sampling technique. Two valid and reliable questionnaires were used for data collection: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) for stress factors and level while GPA for academic performance used among respondents. The total number of participants was 260, while the number of male students was high (85%), the average age of participants was (21.4 ± 2.2%), and the academic performance of the majority of students was good (69.6%). "Assignment and workload stress (2.44 ± 0.64)", followed by "environmental stress" (2.34 ± 0.68) and "patient care stress (2.16 ± 0.61) are the main factors that contribute to the level of stress among university students. The study concluded that the majority of college students suffered from moderate stress, and the main reason that contributes to their stress is assignments and workload.