The years of university can often be referred to as the “great years of our lives,” since we meet many new people, have many new experiences, and learn many new things all simultaneously. With countless positive memories, it's easy to lose sight of the numerous challenges that university can present. For a lot of university students, these years may turn into the most stressful ones. Before understanding the causes of stress, it is important to outline what stress is. Although the definition of stress is complex to define, it can range from an event, response, or state that conveys confusion and uncertainty (Potter, Stockert, Perry, & Hall, 2019, p. 508).
Stress is not always a bad thing as it often can help people to stay focused and motivated, but others respond to it in a manner that causes it to become harmful to their health (Biegel, 2009, p. 20). For many, these stressors may be seen as situational factors of a new school environment, a new schedule, and the overwhelming amount of information packed into the lectures. Others concern themselves with maintaining a high level of academic achievement to live up to their parent’s expectations, the maturational factors of adjusting to the first time being away from home and adapting to a completely new social environment in which they have to establish new friendships (Potter et al., 2019, p. 514). Sociocultural factors such as financial status can also be the common root of numerous students' high-stress levels while attending university (Riddock & Oswalt, 2007, p. 24). Even though sometimes it may feel as if there is nothing that can be done about stress, there are a number of ways to manage it (Joshi, 2005, p. 173).
Managing stress is important to ensure emotional and mental well-being, but also ultimately to avoid contracting stress-related disorders from prolonged exposure (Potter et al., 2019, p. 512). Stress management can be achieved through the primary, secondary, and tertiary modes of prevention (Potter et al., 2019, p. 513). Although stress is impractical to completely eliminate, employing stress management strategies can help to prevent, reduce, and tolerate stress that comes along with the demands of university. Among the various stress management strategies, being able to identify the symptoms and risk factors of the onset of stress is a crucial aspect of its primary prevention (Potter et al., 2019, p. 513).
Some criteria of stress symptoms can include irritability, sleep deprivation, low energy, drinking, smoking, and abnormal social and personal functioning (Potter et al., 2019, p. 516). When the symptoms are recognized it provokes a subconscious alarm that gives a warning of a potential risk of stress and allows for stress management strategies to be initiated early on so that the person can avoid it. Identifying the sources of stress in life is equally as important in its prevention (Biegel, 2009, p. 9). In Neuman's systems model, the primary prevention of stress occurs by minimizing the risk factors that lead to stress and ultimately impede it from occurring (Potter et al., 2019, p. 513). This model reveals how crucial it is to recognize the specific aspects of life that make someone stressed early on, in order to then access the feelings and behaviors that are attributed to these events. Once this is accomplished, the implementation of a care plan of successful stress management strategies will diminish the levels of stress experienced when those situations reappear in the future (Potter et al., 2019, p. 517). In the scope of nursing, this occurs when assessing a patient in an interview through objective and subjective findings. The nurse observes the appearance and nonverbal cues known as the objective findings for indication of stress.
The nurse also determines subjective findings by figuring out maladaptive coping strategies or situations that previously have caused stress (Potter et al., 2019, p. 515). The overwhelming workloads and deadlines for university students may continually be a stressor, but by evaluating the behaviors that may contribute to the stressor such as procrastination, establishes a starting point for a plan to be put into action that prevents this. Journal writing is a useful tool for identifying the sources of stress and ultimately managing it. Journaling permits reflective practice and contemplation as well as acts as a therapeutic outlet to stress (Potter et al., 2019, p. 520). For this reason, jotting down situations that cause stress and then reflecting on the feelings or actions that may have led to or accompanied the aspects, is the primary prevention strategy in stress management that can stop stress from occurring dead in its tracks. By knowing the symptoms and risk factors that cause stress, support systems can be used as a coping strategy for stress if it surpasses primary prevention.