E-Learning stress and coping strategies among nursing students at Albaha University during COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background/Objective: Stress is one of the serious issues that affect university student's life, its effects could be reflected in student social, academical, and mental health, thus this study is to Assess E-learning stress and coping strategies among nursing students at Al-Baha university during Pandemic COVID-19. Method(s) A descriptive cross-sectional study has been utilized in this study. It was conducted at Nursing Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences at Al-Baha University, Saudi Arabia. Data was collected from 15th February to 24th March using a convenience sampling technique to select participants. A Stress Likert Scale was adopted from Smith et al., (2014) [9]. It used (29) items questionnaire to gather information regarding stress and Stress-Coping Scale which was adopted from Malik and Javed (2021) [10], consisted of 8 items which scaled. The tools were validated before collecting the required data. The data was analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22. Result(s) Among 110 male and female nursing students at Albaha University, the study showed that nursing students have moderate stress (30%) to high stress (22%) related to contributing factors of E-learning (35% as very stressful and 21% quite stressful), psychosocial stressors related to E-learning (12% as very stressful and 30% quite stressful), physiological stressors related to E-learning (20.67% as very stressful and 29.11% quite stressful). The used coping strategies to face stressors were taking mind off by doing something (74%), getting help from lecturer (66%), getting help from friend (60%), physical activity (54%), taking action (50%) and giving up attempts and praying (48%). The findings also showed that female nursing students have significantly higher stress compared to male students (p-value 0.03) and rural residence significantly increase stress level compared to urban residence (p-value 0.04). Conclusion(s) Nursing students have moderate to high stress, the contributing factors related to E-learning are psychosocial stressors, and physiological stressors.The students took mind off by doing something getting help from lecturer or friend, physical activity, taking action or giving up attempts or praying as coping strategies. Copyright © 2022, Bahrain Medical Bulletin. All rights reserved.