Relationship between stress level and eating behaviour of nursing student during clinical practice in hospital

Abstract

The high level of stress when nursing student conducts clinical practice becomes a factor that causes poor eating behavior, resulted in the negative effect on health and quality of practice. This research aims to identify the relationship between stress level and eating behavior of Nursing Student in Universitas Indonesia (UI) when they were conducting clinical practice in the hospital. This research design used cross-sectional methods with 171 samples that were taken with stratified random sampling on two levels of clinical practice students; (a) undergraduate nursing student and (b) profession student. The data collection used questionnaire instrument Perceived Stress Scale which modified by Sheu et al. (1997) and Sakata's Eating Behavior. The data analyze used SPSS computer program with Chi-Square, Independent T-test, and ANOVA tests. It was observed that undergraduate nursing student have a high level of stress and poor eating behavior, compared to nursing profession student (p = 0,001 and α = 0,05). In addition, the influence of media and friends also affect eating behavior. It can be conclude that high level of stress lead to poor eating behavior (p < 0,001 and α = 0,05). Therefore, students are expected to manage their stress in order not to give bad impact on eating behavior.