Coping with stressful events: A pre-post-test of a psycho-educational intervention for undergraduate nursing and midwifery students

Background Knowledge of coping mechanisms is important for nursing and midwifery students to cope with stressful events during undergraduate education. Objectives To evaluate the impact of a psycho-educational intervention “Coping with Stressful Events” with first year undergraduate nursing and midwifery students. Design A quasi-experimental, one-group pre-post-test. Settings One school of nursing/midwifery in one university in Ireland. Participants A convenience sample of all first year undergraduate nursing and midwifery students (n = 197). Of these 166 completed the pretest and 138 students completed the post test. Methods Using the COPE Inventory questionnaire (Carver et al., 1989) data was collected pre and post-delivery of the psycho-educational intervention “Coping with Stressful Events” by two research assistants. Data were analysed using the IBM SPSS Statistics version 22 (NY, USA). Results Results demonstrated improved coping skills by students. There were statistically significant differences between pre and post intervention for some coping subscales. For example, the mean subscale scores were lower post-intervention for restraint and mental disengagement, and higher for use of emotional and instrumental social support indicating improved coping strategies. Conclusions This intervention has the potential to influence undergraduate nursing and midwifery students coping skills during their first year of an undergraduate programme.