Stress among Nursing and Midwifery Students Offering a Top-Up Module in the University of Health and Allied Health Sciences, Ho

摘要

Previous studies have posited that students studying in medical-related fields are particularly susceptible to high levels of academic stress with implication for both psychological and physical health. This study set in the environment of a newly established public university in Ghana, seeks to evaluate the levels and component stress among students offering nursing and midwifery in the top-up module in the University of Health and Allied Science, Ho. In descriptive study using a modified version of the pre-validated College Undergraduate Stress Scale, 315 second and third year Midwifery 82 (26.03%), Nursing 155 (49.21%) and Public Health Nursing 78 (24.76%) students obtaining bachelors degree in top-up module were surveyed for this study. Among the total study population, 109 (34.60%) experienced high stress level, 106 (33.65%) experienced moderate stress level and 100 (31.75%) experienced less stress level. Stress levels were higher among the female participants. Participants with children under 13 years and female participants with breastfeeding babies showed higher levels of stress. A majority of students in the sandwich top-up bachelor degree programme experience moderate to high stress mostly due to curriculum overload. Therefore, innovative means should be sought to lessen the level of stress among this category of students. For example, pre-recorded video lectures could be incorporated into the module to lessen the overload in school work.