Protective resources against stress among student nurses: Influences of self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and...

This study aimed to investigate the levels of stress among French student nurses and the influence of different personal resources on their well-being and stress levels.

Student nurses have to cope with strong emotional demands, leading them to experience academic stress. Recent studies have highlighted the influence of personal resources such as self-efficacy, conflict management styles and emotional intelligence on the ability to cope with stressful situations. However, the contributions of these different factors have so far been explored separately.

A multicenter cross-sectional survey was performed from February to April 2022. The sample consisted of 1021 first-year student nurses from different nursing schools in France (including 890 women and 113 men), aged 18-55 years.

Students completed an online questionnaire containing measures of well-being, Perceived Stress Scale, Occupational Stress, Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management Styles.

Nearly half (40.4%) of participants reported experiencing symptoms of stress. However, they also reported a satisfactory well-being and high self-efficacy for coping with stressful situations. Multiple regression analyses revealed major contributions of self-efficacy to stress and well-being and additional mediation models showed that these contributions were partially mediated by awareness of one's own and others' emotions.

These findings highlight the importance of continuing to work on the construction of appropriate educational activities that are consistent with the technical and, above all, nontechnical skills of student nurses.