EDUCATIONAL SOURCES OF STRESS IN MIDWIFERY STUDENTS

This article presents the findings of a study that investigated educat ional sources of stress among student midwives working in England, The study set out to address the question, what are the clinical and educ ational experiences that can give rise to stress? Students were invite d to complete a 45-item questionnaire which asked them to identify the extent to which a particular statement, in their experience, led to f eelings of stress, There were four categories of response: 'not at all ', 'a little', 'much' and 'very much', Responses from 199 students (12 7 preregistration and 72 preregistration (shortened)) were obtained, F actor analysis was used to determine the structure of the data set, an d two factors emerged, Factor I, accounting for 29.6% of variance, was labelled 'organizational and learning experience' sources of stress, while factor 2, accounting for 6.6% of variance, was labelled 'home an d family' sources of stress, Further analysis on those items that were reported as having proportionately large numbers of students respondi ng 'very much' was performed, Results from three items, 'insufficient time to carry out assignments', 'dealing with study vs, home/personal demands', and while on placements being exposed to 'life and death sit uations', were found to be significantly different between preregistra tion and preregistration (shortened) students, These findings suggest that a wide variety of events cause students stress, While clinical so urces of stress may be expected to exist, it must also be recognized t hat relationships with tutorial staff and aspects of the learning envi ronment within colleges can also lead to stress.