Nursing curriculum is very challenging where the students experience extremely stressful situation especially during their clinical posting and therefore, they need a systematic orientation which will help them to cope with this. The aim of present study: To assess perceived stress of nursing students during their initial clinical posting, identify the contributing factors to stress among nursing students and to determine association of stress with selected baseline variables. A descriptive design was adopted for the study. The setting was St. John’s College of Nursing, Bengaluru. A sample of 110 subjects was taken using proportionate stratified sampling technique from first year B. Sc. and first year GNM students. A standardized questionnaire was used to assess the perceived stress and its contributing factors among students during their initial clinical posting, after they have completed a minimum of 2 weeks posting. The data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study showed that 7.27% of the samples had High Stress, 54.55% had Moderate Stress and 38.18% had Low Stress during the initial period of their clinical posting. The most common type of stressor identified by students was stress from lack of professional knowledge and skills with mean percentage of 52.73% and least was stress from peers and daily life with mean percentage of 29.54%. There was a significant association of perceived stress with selected baseline variable like presence of nurse in the family (0.033) at 0.05 levels of significance. The study finding showed that students face stress during their clinical posting and hence they need to be supported with a Sensitization programme to help them to cope better.

Keywords: Stress; Perceived stress scale; Initial Clinical practice