Graduate nursing students and stress.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effectiveness of a stress management program (SMP). The research question was: What effect does a SMP have on the stress response of full time graduate nursing students? A secondary purpose was to determine personal and professional stressors experienced by graduate nursing students and their coping strategies. The SMP consisted of eight weekly one-hour sessions of demonstration and practice of the relaxation response, imagery, and diaphragmatic breathing. Caffeine intake was also reduced. The subjects were 30 female graduate nursing students between the ages of 25-43. They were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Data collection consisted of weekly Palmar Sweat Prints (PSP), blood pressure measurements, and a Weekly Self-Report (WSR), designed to monitor adherence to the SMP by the experimental group and perceived stress and coping strategies of both groups. The A-State Anxiety Questionnaire and Rahe's Recent Life Changes Questionnaire (RRLQ) utilized a pre-/post-test design. Three of the four indicators demonstrated no significant differences in the stress response. The PSP indicated a significant difference (.05). RRLQ suggested no significant differences in the lives of the subjects of both groups. The WSR showed significantly more professionally generated stressors than personally generated stressors. The control group reported significantly less strategies for coping with stress than the experimental group. Although the SMP was not practiced as suggested, its presence in one's cognitive repertoire significantly affects stress response and coping. Implications of this study are numerous.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)