The Effect of Peer Mentoring Program on Nursing Students’ Stressors in Clinical Environment

Introduction: Without clinical education, efficient nursing education is hardly achievable. Nursing Students recall clinical education as their most stressful course ever. Peer mentoring may be one of the strategies to reduce student stress in the clinical environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects that a peer mentoring program has on nursing students’ stress factors in clinical environment. Methods: This research is a quasi-experimental study on 44 second-semester nursing students of Urmia Nursing and Midwifery School who were selected through census. They were randomly divided into two groups as control (21) and intervention (23). In intervention group, a 7th semester nursing student mentor took the responsibility of guiding and supporting each group of 4-5 second semester students. The instrument for data collection was the Farsi version of Clinical Experience Assessment from developed by Kack & Kleehammer. Data were analyzed using Chi², Wilcoxon, and Mann-Whitney test. Results: Clinical Stressor Scores of students in the intervention group declined from 50.45 to 41.9. Wilcoxon test also showed a significant statistical difference (P=0.001). In the control group, no significant difference before and after the intervention (P=0.06) was seen. Conclusion: Peer mentoring program leads to a reduction in nursing students’ stressors in clinical environment. Therefore, it is recommended to use this method in clinical education