Estrés académico en los internos de enfermería de la Universidad Católica Santiago de Guayaquil de la cohorte mayo 2024-2025.

Abstract

Academic stress is a frequent problem in nursing education and intensifies during the internship, a stage in which students assume clinical responsibilities alongside their academic obligations. The objective was to determine the level of academic stress among nursing interns at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, cohort May 2024–2025. A quantitative, descriptive, non-experimental and cross-sectional study was conducted; the entire population, consisting of 103 interns, was surveyed using the SISCO SV-21 Inventory, whose scores were transformed into an index ranging from 0 to 100. Among the results, 95.1 % reported having experienced moments of worry or nervousness. The overall stress index was 48.2, corresponding to a moderate level. Stressors constituted the dimension of greatest intensity (54.9), led by teacher evaluations (61.6); among psychological reactions (48.1), anxiety, anguish or despair predominated (55.9); among behavioural reactions (45.6), reluctance to carry out academic tasks (53.4); and among physical reactions (44.3), digestive problems (49.9) and sleep disorders (47.8). Coping strategies reached an index of 48.2, with problem solving being the most frequently used (54.6). It is concluded that the interns present a moderate level of academic stress across all evaluated dimensions, with teacher evaluations as the main stressor and only moderate use of coping resources, which justifies the implementation of institutional prevention and support strategies.