The Level of Psychological Resilience and Its Relationship to Academic and Clinical Stress among Nursing Students at Umm Al-Qura University

Overview

An undergraduate research project (NUR4106 — Capstone of Nursing Research) at the Faculty of Nursing, Umm Al-Qura University, assessing psychological resilience among nursing students and its relationship with academic and clinical stress.

Background

During clinical training, nursing students experience significant academic and clinical pressure related to patient-care responsibility and the fear of clinical errors, which may negatively impact learning and emotional health. Students with higher psychological resilience are better able to handle these demands and maintain academic and clinical functioning. The relationship between stress and resilience among nursing students remains underexplored in Saudi Arabia — and at Umm Al-Qura University in particular.

Research Objectives

1. Determine the level of psychological resilience among nursing students at UQU.
2. Identify the level of academic and clinical stress experienced by them.
3. Examine the relationship between psychological resilience and clinical/academic stress.
4. Explore the association between resilience and selected demographic variables.

Methods

Quantitative cross-sectional correlational design. Target population: 586 third-year, fourth-year, and internship nursing students. Required sample size (Raosoft, 95% CI, 5% margin, 50% response distribution): 233. Data collected via a self-administered electronic questionnaire distributed through the College of Nursing's official channels (email, WhatsApp, Telegram) from February 2026; voluntary participation with informed consent; IRB approval from UQU.

Instruments

• CD-RISC-25 — Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (0–4 Likert, α ≈ 0.89).
• PASS — Perception of Academic Stress Scale, 18 items (1–5 Likert, α ≈ 0.70).
• SNS-15 — Student Nurse Stressor-15 (α ≈ 0.92).

Analysis

SPSS — descriptive statistics (means, SDs, frequencies, percentages); Pearson correlation for inter-scale relationships; independent-samples t-tests and one-way ANOVA for demographic differences; significance threshold p < 0.05.

Preliminary Findings

Analyzed sample of 117 nursing students (70.1% female, 29.9% male; mostly 21–23 years). The Psychological Resilience scale showed a total mean score of 69.50, with high positive responses on several items (e.g., 64.1% reported that past successes give them confidence "true nearly all the time").

Keywords: Psychological Resilience, Academic Stress, Clinical Stress, Nursing Students, Psychological Well-being, Saudi Arabia.