Morale and Role Strain of Undergraduate Nursing Students in a Pediatric Clinical Setting

• Published in: The Journal of Nursing Research Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 144 - 153
• Main Author: 陳季員(Chen, Jih-yuan)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese
• Published: 台灣 臺灣護理學會 01-06-2010
• Subjects: Emotional feeling; MEDLINE; Morale; Role strain; SCIE; Scopus; SSCI; Student nurse; TSCI; TSSCI; 士氣; 情緒感覺; 角色緊張; 護理學生
• ISSN: 1682-3141

Background: Studies have indicated that causes of anxiety,such as stress, satisfaction, and motivation, affect nursing stu-dents during their clinical practice. However, psychological issues that induce morale and role strain in nursing students, which lack quantitative measures, have not been studied well enough.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the morale and the potential role strains of undergraduate nursing students in pediatric clinical practice and to identify their related factors.
Methods: Using qualitative methods, 42 undergraduate nurs-ing students were interviewed twice by the author in a group setting (8Y9 persons each time, once at the beginning and again at the end of their pediatric clinical experience), during which they were encouraged to express their perceptions of morale and role strain in a natural classroom setting. Content analysis wasemployedtoanalyzethedata.
Results: The study found that the morale of nursing students in the pediatric clinic included positive morale aspects such as hope, attainment, love, safety, alertness, happiness, and interest and negative aspects such as anger, fear, depression, stress,helplessness, and irregularity. Factors influencing the morale of nursing students included self-perceived, personal, clinical, and environmental, in particular, and professional in general. Partici-pants experienced lower morale and higher degrees of role strainmainly because the impact of their self-perceived role was derived from job reality and job expectations.
Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Various clinical settings, individual perceptions and capacities, and conflicts between expectative and ideal roles were found to induce morale reaction and role strain in nursing students. Develop-ment of positive morale among nurses can improve nursing care in clinical settings. Therefore, how to enhance morale in nursing students is very important in the professional socializa-tion process through clinical practice experiences.
背　景 過去研究指出護生在臨床實習時因壓力、滿意度和動機之因素而產生焦慮。然而，護生的士氣和實習角色緊張等心理問題的測量缺乏，且少有研究。 目　的 本研究目的是檢視大學護理學生在兒科臨床實習的士氣和角色緊張，並確認其影響因素。 方　法 本研究採取質性方法，針對42位大學護生兒科實習前及結束前，在一般課室由作者引導團體（8－9人／次）訪談，讓參與者表達其士氣和實習角色緊張的感覺及狀況，資料採內容分析法進行分析。 結　果 本研究結果發現大學護理學生兒科臨床實習之正向士氣為希望、成就、愛、安全、靈活、快樂和興趣；負向士氣為生氣、害怕、憂鬱、壓力、無助、無規則；影響護生士氣的因素包括自我知覺、臨床工作人員或環境特殊性和一般專業。護生角色緊張則明顯地來自於現實角色和期望的理想角色之間的衝擊。 結　論／實務應用 多變化的臨床情境、個人的知覺及能力、現實和理想角色的衝突導致護生的士氣反應和角色緊張。發展正向士氣有助於提昇護理品質，因此，於臨床實習如何增進正向士氣，將有助於護生專業社會化之發展