Stress and Coping: Measuring Graduate Nursing Student Success

In this proposed study, the purpose is to explore the relationship between stress, coping, and GPA in a sample of graduate nursing students at a school in southern California. It is expected that students entering a graduate nursing program will experience stress as do many students entering a new educational program. Stress however, can cause adverse reactions, and may result in lowering the student’s grade point average (GPA). The key to excelling even with an abundance of stress is the ability to cope. The sample size proposed is n=92 graduate nursing students. The students will be given three separate questionnaires to measure stress, coping ability, and demographics which will include GPA, and the covariates of health status, job status and family status. This research will be based on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping by Robert Lazarus. Data will be collected and then inputted to SPSS 21. Data will be analyzed using multiple linear regression in a quantitative cross-sectional design to answer the research questions regarding the relationship between stress, coping and GPA as well as how stress may hinder a students’ ability to be a successful graduate student. The study will seek to demonstrate that there may be a positive correlation between coping skills, stress, and GPA, and that as unmitigated stress occurs, GPA falls.