INVESTIGATING THE LEVEL OF STRESS IN POST (RN) B.Sc NURSING STUDENTS DURING EXAMS

Introduction: The time of examination is a stressful period where stress is on its highest levels. To some extent, low level of stress can help in motivating the students, however on the contrary more stress can be discouraging. It will make students exhausted, overwhelmed and confused.

Objective: To investigate the level of stress among Post RN (BSC Nursing) students during exams at Sheikh Zayed College of Nursing, Rahim Yaar Khan.

Materials & methods: It was descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study in nature in which 100 nursing nursing students included. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data from the participants.

Results: There were 100 study participants included in the study having age range 18 years to 26 years old. 69% reported that they were not able to concentrate fully while preparing for examination most of the time and 31% respondents were disagreed. 87% participants reported that they prepare examination only when the examination were near and only 13% were disagreed with the statement. Overall, result findings depicted that 17% participants reported low level of stress, 69% reported moderate level of stress and remaining 14% revealed high level of stress during exam.

Conclusion: Some participants reported to be low level of stress and some of them reported to be high level of stress during exams. Lack of time to revision the course, unfamiliar course contents or inadequate learning skills and time management skills, lack of understanding with some portions of the curriculum and family pressure having high grade seems to be prime factors causing stress among nursing students. Overall, majority of study participants reported to be moderate level of stress during exams.

Keywords: Stress, nursing students, Post RN, exams etc.