Understanding nursing students' stress: a proposed framework

A paucity of comprehensive research, as well as inconsistent application of theories/conceptual frameworks, have resulted in a limited knowledge of stress in nursing students. The purpose of this paper is to establish a framework for understanding the stress/coping/adaptation process in the nursing student population. To this end, Pollock's Adaptation Nursing Model (Pollock 1984) is discussed and subsequently recommended as a possible alternative. Utilization of this framework as an organizing construct for the paper facilitates a comprehensive review of recent literature related to stress in undergraduate nursing students. In addition, it is proposed that Pollock's model can provide nurse educators, practitioners, administrators and researchers with a framework for understanding nursing students' stress.