Coping Mechanisms of Nursing Students in Clinical Placement

Abstract

Although clinical placement takes place in a clinical environment, the clinical environment presents many challenges to the nursing students on placement. This requires that nursing students have the ability to develop appropriate copying mechanisms in mitigating such challenges. However, for many nursing students, the ability to successfully cope in a clinical environment has been very challenging. Against this background, this study explored the coping mechanisms of nursing students in clinical placement at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Cape Coast. Theoretically, the arguments of this paper are grounded in the transactional theory of coping which proves a typology of the interplay between stressors, the environment, psychosocial resources, and coping strategies on event outcomes. The descriptive survey design was employed through the administration of questionnaires to 132 nursing students. The Statistical Products and Service Solutions (SPSS), version 20 was used to analyse the data using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study portrays a lack of sufficient support services to nursing students during clinical placements, and that the placement environment was generally unsupportive, making it difficult for students to cope.  As such, several coping mechanisms were employed by the students during their placement. Major among them is seeking support from peers, creating a healthy relationship with nursing staff and avoiding the clinical environment. Nursing students on clinical placement should be sufficiently equipped with proper coping strategies in the placement environment, while management of the Nursing School should regularly visit students on placement to obtain relevant information about their progress and challenges.