The effect of a peer-mentoring strategy on student nurse stress reduction in clinical practice

That nursing students suffer high levels of stress during clinical practice is a common topic in nursing education, but there are some effective strategies for dealing with it.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects that a peer mentoring program has on student nurses' stress levels during clinical practice.

A quasi-experimental design was conducted. Forty-nine junior level nursing students (n = 17 in the experimental group; n = 32 in the control group) were enrolled in the same medical-surgical nursing class. Mentors were recruited from students who had received medical-surgical experience before entering university. A 6-point perceived Stress Scale for the nursing students' questionnaire was used to evaluate the stress level.

Stress from 'lack of professional knowledge and skills' was the highest score before clinical practice in the experimental (3.78) and control (3.57) group, and also was the highest score after clinical practice in the control group (3.44). Stress from 'assignments and workload' was the highest score after clinical practice in experimental group (3.25). Wilcoxon matched paired signed ranks test revealed that there are no significant differences in stress scores between the two groups.

Study findings reveal that there are various advantages and disadvantages to implementing peer mentoring programs. The clinical teacher needs to provide suitable support and encouragement to the mentor and mentee students during this program. These results might provide information that can be used in improving clinical internship experience for the students.