Abstract
In the present study, we sought to demonstrate the relationship between professional motivation and stress among new nursing students as part of our attempt to develop stress-coping measures at a nursing university. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire on professional motivation for becoming a nurse, responses to stress, and stress coping methods (sense of coherence, SOC) was conducted on 137 nursing students at Nursing University A, and 112 valid responses were subjected to analysis. Compared to the respondents who demonstrated a lack of professional motivation, a high percentage of respondents who showed strong professional motivation (i. e., those who wanted to become a nurse for financial reasons, those who were recommended by others to study nursing, and those who wanted to become a nurse for no definable reason) fell into the high-stress group. Respondents who showed strong professional motivation (i.e., those who saw nursing as a worthwhile profession and those who found nursing to be an interesting profession) had a higher median SOC score than the respondents who showed a lack of professional motivation. Our findings suggest that assessing the professional motivations of nursing students is a useful way to develop stress-coping measures to maintain physical and mental health.
