The process of seeking stress-care: Coping as experienced by senior baccalaureate nursing students in response to appraised clinical stress

High levels of clinical stress experienced by nursing students continue to be identified in the literature. However, much is still unexplored about the coping processes of nursing students in response to appraised clinical stress. A grounded theory methodological approach was used to acquire a substantive theory of the processes through which senior baccalaureate nursing students manage the demands of the clinical person-environment relationships that are appraised as stressful and the emotions they generate. A theoretical sample of 16 volunteer senior generic nursing students from two baccalaureate nursing programs was determined by saturation of the data. Each participant was interviewed twice. The basic social problem experienced by these senior baccalaureate nursing students was the chaos created in their lives while trying to manage the demands of the appraised clinical stress (i.e., the clinical person-environment relationship). The three-stage process of seeking stress-care, including encountering changing self, loss of self, and regaining managed self, helped the students manage this chaos. Each of the stages related to the processes that transpired within the students as they dealt with the chaos created in their life while trying to manage the demands of appraised clinical stress. Implications include the development of the stress-care construct and innovative instructor interventions in the clinical setting.