Stress and eustress in nursing students

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to identify experiences that led to both distress and eustress and to make recommendations to help students cope with course demands. BACKGROUND: Much of the research on stress in nursing students is quantitative in focus and all draws on their experience of distress, with little attempt to understand experiences of eustress. METHOD: A series of focus groups were carried out with a volunteer sample of final year nursing students (n = 16) in the United Kingdom in 2007. The data were thematically analysed. FINDINGS: The themes identified were clinical experience, support, learning and teaching experience and course structure. There were experiences within each that were perceived as sources of distress and…