Abstract:
University students have increased psychological distress than any other
students in different countries Worldwide. Psychological distress is defined
as a condition that one feels in response to having to cope with situations
that are unsettling, frustrating or perceived as harmful or threatening. The
study focused on exploring the effects of psychological distress on nursing
students at National University of Lesotho. The study used an explorative
and descriptive qualitative research design to collect data using semistructured
interviews from a sample of 10 nursing students. Qualitative
content analysis was used to analyse the data and 3 themes and 11
subthemes were developed. Participants identified academic workload, time
management, clinical placement, financial and socio-demographic factors
as the main stressors. Poor academic performance, impaired physical
wellbeing, emotional suffering and spiritual ill-health were among the
identified effects of distress. The coping mechanisms which the nursing
students employed included using available social support, motivating self
and engaging in leisure activities. It was concluded that psychological
distress has a great effect on nursing students and it results in poor
academic performance and illness. Effective interventions can be adopted to
improve coping with psychological stress factors and subsequent stress
responses among nursing students.
