Most nursing students suffer from stress and anxiety during hospital training. Taking care of terminally ill patients and spending time with people in pain were the most feared experiences, followed by the environment of the hospital (environment and workload) and treating cancer and psychiatric patients. This is the main conclusion of a study carried out by a group of researchers of the departments of Nursing and Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment of the University of Granada.
The study was conducted on a sample of 110 nursing students from the University School of Melilla, all of them in second year as it was important that students already had some work experience. The goal of the study, performed by professors Bibinha Benbunan Bentata, Francisco Cruz Quintana, José María Roa Venegas, Carmen Villaverde Gutiérrez, researchers of the University of Granada (together with Bettina Raquel Benbunan Bentata, from the Centro Memory of Madrid), was to assess how professional health workers face the experience of death. «It is – according to scientists – one of the biggest challenges faced by professionals and students of Health Science. Besides, students have shown they receive insufficient training during their degree to deal with these kinds of situations.»
The majority, women
The age of participants in this study ranged between 18 and 44. Women made up approximately three quarters of the total. The study carried out at the UGR has highlighted that the introduction of an official program to mitigate the stressful effects of the impact caused by these experiences of pain and death is very useful for students as well as for university professors in charge of the training.
The name given to the program designed by the authors of the study was «Workshop on the emotional impact of suffering and experiences related to death», and it consisted of four theoretical-practical workshops. Subjects actively participated in the workshops, which developed their communication skills, emotional control and relaxation techniques. It also included a workshop on the topic of death specially designed to tackle the impact of these experiences more directly. The study revealed that the implementation of this program greatly reduced the sample group’s stress and anxiety levels.
The authors emphasize that «helping patients die with dignity and keeping them company during their suffering requires, without doubt, training, knowledge and maturity”.
Reference: Professor Fancisco Cruz Quintana. Head of the Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment of the University of Granada. Telephone: 958 248036 – 958 244251.
E-mail: fcruz@ugr.es
