According to a longitudinal study published in the "Journal of Clinical Nursing" in December 2008, stress and life events both contributed significantly to the psychological distress of nursing students and nurses. Greater stress was noted once nurses finished school and began their nursing career. Stress and psychological distress may hinder the retention of nursing students in educational nursing programs.
A journal article in "BMC Nursing" in 2005 was reported to assist in developing an effective clinical teaching strategy in terms of nursing education. Four themes emerged when 90 nursing students were surveyed including initial clinical anxiety, the gap between theory and practice, clinical supervision, and in terms of their professional role. The outcome of the study showed that these nursing students experienced anxiety due to feeling incompetent in the clinical setting.
One of the most difficult psychological challenges for nursing students is dealing with a patient's death and the reactions of the patient's family members. Nursing students at Medcenter One College of Nursing learn how to cope with a patient dying with a computerized mannequin that demonstrates what a patient goes through at the end. An oncology nurse at the Medcenter teaches nursing students what to expect in terms of family member's responses and reminds them that patient deaths can affect them emotionally even after several experiences.
A study was published in the "Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention," Vol. 11 in 2010, that outlined what nursing students experienced when their own parent had cancer and how that impacted their role as a future nurse working with patients with cancer and their families. Common themes were fear of loss, role changeover in family as experiences and communication changeover in family. As a result of their personal experiences, nursing students felt they would provide more information to future cancer patients in their care.