Examining the Relationship Between Recent Life Experiences and Perceived Stressors in Nursing Students

RN to BSN and MSN students experience a degree of stress on the job and in the classroom that could lead to negative personal and professional consequences, which in turn may contribute to negative trends in the nursing field including job dissatisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue. Guided by Tsai's Theory of Caregiver Stress, this study examines whether a relationship exists between stress level and intensity of life experiences in 84 nursing students in Clarion University's RN to BSN (n=51) and MSN programs (n=33). Participants were asked to complete the Perceived Stress Scale and Survey of Recent Life Experience reporting their stress levels and perceived stressors over the course of the previous month, as well as a short demographic survey. The correlation between stress and life events was then examined, as well as the relationship of stress to demographic covariates such as age, gender, marital status, years of nursing experience, and enrollment status. As anticipated, a strong positive correlation was found between stress level and life intensity in both RN to BSN and MSN student participants (p=<0.0001).