STRESS LEVEL AMONG NURSING STUDENTS IN HAWLER MEDICAL UNIVERSITY AT ERBIL CITY- IRAQ

Abstract

Background and Objective: Stress is a general term describing the psychological and physical response to a stimulus that alters the body's equilibrium. Nowadays, there is increasing pressure and stress in students, this might be related to studies, examination, peer, teachers or parent's pressure. Aims of this study were to assess the severity of stress among college students and association between socio-demographic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 student nurses of all stages and both genders in College of Nursing at Hawler Medical University/Erbil City of Kurdistan Region-Iraq. Data were collected from students through interviews based on a designed questionnaire. In order to analyse the results of the study data were entered in SPSS (version 23) frequency, percentage and Chi-square tests were used for interpretation of data. Results: The mean age (±SD) was 21.06 (±2.58) years. Most (68.5%) of them were female (85%) single and (63.5%) with standard economic status. About 39.5% of the study sample lived in the urban area, the highest percentage (98%) were Muslim, and (97.5%) were Kurdish. While most (65%) of them suffered from moderate stress level and only 13% were with high stress level. There was no significant association between the level of stress and their socio-demographic characteristics, only gender was significant statistically (PValue=0.029). Conclusion: The study concluded that most of nursing students have stress symptoms.