Umbrella Review: Stress Levels, Sources of Stress, and Coping Mechanisms among Student Nurses

Prelicensure nursing students face significant stress from their education and clinical placements, highlighting the crucial need for the development of effective coping mechanisms with which to manage both academic and clinical responsibilities, ultimately enhancing the wellbeing and academic performance of these students. This umbrella review aims to evaluate and synthesize existing review articles that examine stress levels and coping mechanisms among student nurses during their education and training. Five databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science) were searched for review articles published from 2010 onwards. This review includes twelve articles, encompassing 189 studies. The review findings demonstrate that student nurses experience moderate-to-high levels of stress during their nurse education. Major sources of stress include academic demands, patient care responsibilities, and interactions with nursing staff and faculty. Commonly utilized coping skills involve problem-solving behaviors, transference, and maintaining an optimistic outlook. Given the adverse consequences of stress, nurse educators play a critical role in the development of strategies with which to reduce stress and enhance coping skills among student nurses. This study was not registered.