Prevalence of Perceived Stress among Nurse Interns in Teaching Hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The concept of perceived stress refers to an individual's response to a perceived danger in their environment, which is believed to provide a challenge to their capabilities and overall well-being. Internships play a crucial role in the nursing profession by providing valuable introductory experiences. Objective: To reveal level of stress among intern nurses. Methods: In this study, nurse intern stress level was measured by using descriptive cross-sectional design. The sample size was 105 and data were collected via Google form in teaching hospitals of district Peshawar and Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Results: In this study, majority of the participants were male n=93 (88.6%) followed by female n=12 (11.4%). Almost nine-tenth (87.6%) n=92 of the study participants was placed in age group less than 25 years. None of the participants were placed in higher stress level although, more than four score (81.9%) of the participants fell in moderate stress level. However, 18% of them perceived low stress. Conclusions: The moderate level of stress was found to be significantly affecting the performance in early career of nurses. The goal should be to provide nursing students with improved strategies for handling stress.