Clinical stressors as perceived by first-year nursing students of their experience at Alexandria main university hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: Clinical hospital stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic are one of the problems that affect the quality of education among first-year nursing students, particularly in the first 6 months of their practice. OBJECTIVE: Assess the types and severity of clinical hospital stressors among first-year nursing students and investigate the relationship between students' clinical stressors and their level of worry from COVID-19. DESIGN: A descriptive correlational research design. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria's main university hospital. The study included a convenience sample of 200 first-year nursing students. TOOLS: Socio-demographic and academic data of nursing students. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is used to assess the degree and type of stressors. RESULTS: The highest reported types of stressors were stress from the clinical hospital (M = 13.54) and stress from a lack of professional knowledge and skills (M = 13). Concerning the overall stressors, all students experienced a severe degree of stress (M = 116.87). Furthermore, students' age, sex, number of study hours/week, number of assignments/week, and worry from COVID 19 were highly statistically significant with degrees of perceived stress as (p = 0.000, 0.030). CONCLUSION: Clinical hospital stressors had a significant negative impact on the majority of students' education in the hospital. As well as worrying about COVID 19, positively increased the perceived stressors of nursing students. RECOMMENDATIONS: Implement an educational program for the first-year nursing students about clinical hospital stressors during COVID-19 and trained them how they can cope with these stressors by using stress management.