Iwona Bodys-Cupak
Jagiellonian University Medical College, Poland
Title: Self- efficacy, perceived stress and stress-related factors in clinical practice
Biography
Biography: Iwona Bodys-Cupak
Abstract
Clinical education is a crucial in medical professions. The general purpose of education is to ensure that students acquire the knowledge and professional skills for their future career.
The purpose of this study was: verification of stressors during clinical classes, defining the factors that determine the reasons for not coping with difficult situations during clinical classes.
The study involved the nursing students of the first, second, and third year of the first-degree programme at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Jagiellonian University Medical College. The research was conducted in the 2018/2019 academic year among 307 students.
The research tools used during the study were as follows: the Generalized Self-Efficiency Scale and the original questionnaire developed by the author.
Among the difficulties faced by the students during clinical classes named were the ones:
- related to contact with the patient and their family,
- related to the performance of care treatments,
- related to the performance of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
The most common reason for not being able to cope with difficult situations was (N = 167, i.e.
54.4%) the lack of experience. Every third student (N = 103, i.e. 33.6%) indicated insufficiently
trained procedure skills, and every fifth (N = 66, i.e. 21.5%) mentioned insufficient knowledge.
More than half of the students (N = 179, i.e. 58.3%) had a high sense of self-efficacy.
The higher the year of studies, the more often the mentioned reasons for not coping were insufficient knowledge (p = 0.0020) and excessive workload during classes (p = 0.0461), and less frequently mentioned was lack of experience (p = 0.0001). Lack of patience in contact with the patient was a less frequent reason for not coping for people with higher self-efficacy.
Further research should focus on developing culturally adapted intervention programs that could improve the self-efficacy of nursing students.