Perceived Stress in Clinical Areas and Emotional Intelligence among Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Nursing students experience potential sources of stress - inducing situations and emotions as they deal with patients in clinical areas. The study explored perceived stress in clinical areas and emotional intelligence among 135 baccalaureate nursing students from second year to fourth year attending College of Health Sciences, Bahrain. The Perceived Stress Scale and the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale were adopted. The highest perceived stress experienced by the nursing students was from assignments and workload and was found among the fourth year students. Moderate to severe overall stress levels were experienced by all bacca laureate nursing students in clinical areas. The Post hoc analysis of Ftest revealed significant perceived stress levels from lack of professional knowledge and skills among the second year students. Emotional intelligence by gender and year of study was not statistically significant. Overall perceived stress scores and emotional intelligence showed a negative correlation.