The relationship between secondary traumatic stress level and perceived caring behaviors among nursing students

Abstract

Objective: Secondary traumatic stress in nursing students has adverse effects on students' care behaviors and students' professional and personal lives. The aim of this study: To examine the relationship between secondary traumatic stress levels and perceived caring behaviors of nursing students. Material and Methods: The study was designed as a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The study was conducted with 147 students studying in the nursing department of a foundation university in Istanbul. 60% of the population was reached. The data of the study were collected by using the "Sociodemographic and Occupational Characteristics Information Form", "Caring Behaviors Scale" and "Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale" through Google Form sent online to the participants. Descriptive data were analyzed using mean, median, minimum, maximum, frequency and standard deviation. Results: The study was conducted with a total of 147 nursing students, 83.0% (n=122) female and 17.0% (n=25) male. The total score of the STS scale of the nursing students participating in the study was 32.1 ± 12.6, and the mean score of the CBS was 5.57 ± 0.52. It was found that there was a significant difference between the mean score of secondary traumatic stress in terms of "willingly choosing the department they studied", "being affected by the trauma that patients were exposed to during the clinical practice period", and "thinking that you need psychological support due to an event that affected you during clinical practice" (p<0.05). It was found that there was a significant difference between the Care Behaviors Scale sub-dimension scores in terms of "Gender", "Finding oneself successful in clinical practice during the student period" (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, while secondary traumatic stress was low in nursing students, the perception of caring behaviors was found to be high. There was no relationship between secondary traumatic stress and the perception of caring behaviors in nursing students.