AbstractBackground: Stress has become serious concern in the present time. Stress is nursing education is acknowledged as one of the most important issues in the modern world. Coping is the process of the managing demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding resource of the person. Objectives: (1) To identify the level of stress among 1st Year BSc. Nursing students. (2)To assess the factors affecting stress among 1st Year BSc. Nursing students (3)To identify the coping strategies adopted by 1stYear BSc Nursing students (4)To associate level of stress and coping strategies with selected sociodemographic variables. (5) To correlate level of stress and coping strategies among 1st year BSc. Nursing students. Material and Methods:A NonExperimental, Descriptive exploratory survey approach was used for the study. Data was collected from 81, 1st year B.Sc. Nursing students who were studying in selected nursing colleges at Rajasthan. Non probability purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the samples. Standardized “Perceived stress scale” and “Coping behavior inventory” adopted by Sheu et al (2002) was used for collecting the data. Results: Majority (76.54%) of students were having mild stress. Highest mean score (5.53±2.09) which is (46.08%) of total score was obtained in the area of stress from the environment which falls in the category of mild stress. Majority (66.66%) of students were having moderate coping strategies. Therewas significant association between number of siblings and level of stress (15.68, P<0.05). There was highly significant association between sex and level of stress (11.79, P<0.05).Thereis moderately positive correlation (r = 0.32) between level of stress and coping strategies. Conclusion: Stress in nursing students is an area of growing concern and it may result in physiological distress, physical complaints, behavior problems and poor academic performance. Coping with stress for student nurse is dynamic and maintenance of the individual integrity. The present study revealed that students have mild level of stress and have moderate coping strategies.
Keywords: Assess; Stress; Coping Strategies.