A Survey of Student Nurses' Attitudes Toward Help Seeking for Stress

• Published in: Nursing forum (Hillsdale) Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 171 - 181
• Main Authors: Galbraith, Niall D., Brown, Katherine E., Clifton, Elizabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-07-2014; Hindawi Limited
• Subjects: Attitude of Health Personnel; College students; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data Collection; Help seeking; Humans; Mental health care; Nurses; Nursing; Nursing education; questionnaire; Social Support; Stress; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Stress, Psychological - rehabilitation; Student attitudes; Students, Nursing - psychology; survey; Surveys and Questionnaires; United Kingdom > UK; Help seeking; stress; survey; questionnaire; nursing
• ISSN: 0029-6473; 1744-6198
• DOI: 10.1111/nuf.12066

Background
Globally, stress in student nurses may have serious implications for health, absenteeism, and attrition. Despite this, there is scant research on student nurses' attitudes toward help seeking.
Objectives
To examine student nurses' attitudes toward stress and help‐seeking.
Design Methods and Statistical Analysis
A cross‐sectional questionnaire survey design was employed to gather data from 219 student nurses at two large U.K. universities. Two‐sample chi‐square tests and Fisher's exact tests were used to analyze categorical associations between responses.
Results
Most had experienced stress before, believed the incidence within the profession was high, and would disclose their own stress to family/friends rather than to colleagues or professional institutions. The most popular outpatient treatment choice was social support; few would choose formal advice. The most common factor influencing inpatient treatment choice was confidentiality; for many, this factor would also lead them to seek distant rather than local inpatient care. Encouragingly, most would not lose confidence in a stressed colleague.
Conclusions
Negative attitudes toward stress and help seeking may be entrenched even before training and may have a marked influence on how/whether students seek help. Nurse employers and educators should foster more supportive and accepting attitudes toward stress in order to tackle its unwanted consequences.
Galbraith
Brown
Clifton