Date of Defense

12-9-2022

Date of Graduation

12-2022

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Maria Roche-Dean

Second Advisor

Julie Eilenberg

Third Advisor

Duy Ngo

Abstract

Nursing students tend to experience high levels of stress due to the pressures and demands of nursing school, including exams, clinical, and interactions with professors and preceptors (Labrague et al., 2017). Recently, the COVID-19 Pandemic has created additional stressors. Both mind and body modalities (yoga, meditation, deep breathing etc.) and exercise modalities (running, walking, etc.) are some of many health promoting, stress reducing activities that were proven to be effective in reducing stress in nursing students prior to the pandemic. This study aims to determine if these modalities are still effective now, and how nursing faculty supports stress reduction in their students. A systematic literature review was conducted. A one-time, online, anonymous survey was distributed to junior and senior nursing students at Western Michigan University and Ferris State University. Questions from the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, 1983), combined with further questions developed with mentoring from faculty including demographics, nursing school specific stressors, stress reduction techniques, and COVID-19 stressors were distributed to students. Results indicate that there is not an association between use of holistic modalities and stress reduction, but students feel that more stress reduction teaching in curriculum could be beneficial. Further directions of research should examine the holistic modalities in more detail and other stress reduction techniques used by nursing students, as well as how nursing faculty can better help their students maintain lower stress levels.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

Kamp Thesis Defense Presentation.pdf (828 kB)
Defense Presentation

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Nursing Commons

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