Abstract
Background
There has been growing concern about stress in nursing. It is acknowledged as a major part of the student experience and linked to psychological distress and other adverse consequences on student’s health and well-being. Psychological stress depends on students’ personality traits and may lead to adjustment issues.
Aim
To assess personality, psychological distress, and adjustment difficulties among nursing students at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
Materials and Methods
This cross-sectional descriptive study included 292 participants enrolled in a BSc (Hons) nursing course at the College of Nursing, AIIMS, New Delhi. Data were collected using a questionnaire comprising the big five inventory, general health questionnaire, and adjustment inventory for college students. The reliability of the tools was 0.79, 0.82, and 0.94, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results
Extrovert and neuroticism were found to be the most dominant type of personality trait among the nursing students. A high level of distress was experienced by 56.2% of the participants with a mean score of 4.8 ± 2.72 while a low level of psychological distress was experienced by 43.8% of the subjects with a mean score of 0.3 ± 0.48. No participant was in the excellent adjustment category while 2.1% of the participants were in the overall good adjustment category. Average overall adjustment was seen in 10.3% of the participants and unsatisfactory and very unsatisfactory overall adjustment was seen in 40.7% and 46.9% of the participants respectively. There was a significant association between neuroticism personality traits and psychological distress (p < .05). There was a significant association between psychological distress and adjustment and between personality and adjustment (p < .05). A significant association was also found between neurotic and conscientiousness personality traits with father’s education. Home, health, and educational adjustment were found to be positively correlated with mother’s education. Neuroticism and openness to experience personality traits and educational adjustment were found to have a statistically significant relationship with the duration of sleep. A significant relationship was also seen between psychological distress and health adjustment with the number of close friends.
Conclusion
Extrovert and neuroticism personalities are dominant among nursing students. Psychological distress and unsatisfactory adjustment categories are faced by the majority of the participants. Therefore, a student-friendly environment is needed in the colleges to decrease the level of distress faced by the students and to help them in easy adjustment.
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