A Stress Survey in Nurse Anesthetist Students
Napatchanan Laotaweesuk BNS1, Suchitra Bumrongsawat BNS1, Araya Ongiem BNS, MSc1,
Phongthara Vichitvejapisal MD, PhD1
Affiliation :
1 Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Objective : To study the stress situation in nurse anesthetist students during a training program.
Materials and Methods : The present prospective study was to survey the stress level in 30 volunteered nurse anesthetist students
by using the well-validated anesthesia related and psychological stress tests. All students responded to the questionnaires three
times at two months interval, away from term examination of their academic year. The test scores were analyzed and interpreted
for the severity of stress.
Results : Nurse anesthetist students had to work (cid:976)ive days a week with night shifts and average sleeping time of (cid:976)ive to six hours per
day. Off-duty issues (p=0.032) and mortality/morbidity information (p=0.015) were a source of stress. The susceptibility to stress
showed no correlation with gender, experience, working data, and patient safety issue; however, it was signi(cid:976)icantly related to sources
of stress like personal problems (p=0.045), primarily family (p=0.036), and (cid:976)inancial (p=0.042). Their vulnerable periods were
pre- and intra-operative period, mainly night duties (60.0%). Nevertheless, most of them expressed critical revision (63.3%) to cope
with the dif(cid:976)iculties in anesthesia. Anesthesiology is an unaccustomed, stressful subject. Nurse anesthetist students were worried
about the increasing of the compromising situation and the solution to stabilize patients during the surgical procedure. Though
students were under the supervision of an attending staff, they usually were left alone intra-operatively in the operating theatre.
This might easily aggravate the tension state to the beginners. Financial and family problems forced students to scale down their
competency and learning achievement. However, most of them were mature enough to make a decision when confronting dif(cid:976)iculties.
Conclusion : Nurse anesthetist students worked under pressure and expressed considerable worries because of tight training
schedule, night shifts, and self-problems e.g., lack of sleep, (cid:976)inancial, and family problems.
Keywords : Nurse anesthetist students, Training program, Occupational stress
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