Table 1 Distribution of percentage and mean responses to factors that may cause stress No Stress factor Levels of stress-

percent breakdown Mean score _______________ ________________________________________ Description Not at all Moderately very extremely Stressful Stressful Stressful Stressful ___________________________________________________________________________ 1 Theory 11 2 4 2.63 41 44

examinations 23 2.97 3 assigments 0 4 work load 27 3.06 5 class room hours 53 7 6 financial constraints 0 14 7 secondments travel 8 14 2.16 21 32

23

53

44

24

2.92

21

52

19

72

3.59

44

27

21 8

2.61

clinical placements 16 68 9 death of a patient 3 45 relationship with 1.82 word staff 36 32 16 58 2.65 6 15 1 2.01

10 4 11

relationship with 1 1.37 nurse tutors 12

67

29

relationship with clinical 72 1.33 placement coordinators

25

with acadmic performance, clinical placements, finincial constraint,death of a patient and relationship with staff on the ward causes considirable stress (mean>2), whereas relationship with nurse tutors and clanical placements and coordinators were reported to be at most moderately stressful (mean<1.5). Financial stress received the highest mean score and most students found this factor extremely stressful. All subjects agreed that tha assignments on the course, the work load of the course and the financial constraints of the course caused some degree of stress. The mejority of subjects agreed that scheduled examinations (99%), the theoretical content (96%), travelling to secondments (92%),clinical placement (84%), the class room contact hours (81%), and the relationship with staff on the word (68%), cause some degree of stress. A small proportion of subjects indicated the relationship with the nurse tutors (33%), and relationship with clinical placement coordinators (28%), caused stres. Factors analysis (PCA) was carried out on the 12 stress factors and five components were extracted from the 12 original stress factors (using varimex

rotation, and rretaining all components with eigen values > 1.All and only the retained component loadings were > 0.05 and were statistically significant at P<0.01). The factors were as follows : 1.Theory exams , assignments, workload,contact hours 2.Relationships with tutors, relationships with CPCs 3. Clinical placement, relationships with staff on wards 4. Finance 5.Death of a patient. The first component combines all the 'academic' stress factors. the second and third component concern relationships, the former involving teching related staff, and the latter involving the clinical experience.The last two components suggest that finance and death of patient are independent source of stress.