Association Between Mental Health and Educational Stressful Factors Among Students of Razi Nursing and Midwifery School in Kerman

Introduction: Entrance to university is accompanied with major changes in social relationships, expectations and roles that make the students susceptible for mental problems. The aim of this study was to determine the association between mental health and educational stressful factors among students of Kerman Nursing and Midwifery School. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out on all students selected by census (325 students) studying in Kerman Nursing and Midwifery School in year 2008. The data were collected through General Health Questionnair (GHQ-28) and a researcher made questionnaire on demographic and educational stressful factors. The data were analyzed by SPSS13 through descriptive and analytical (χ2 and Pearson correlation tests) statistics. Significance level was set as P≤0.05. Results: Out of 300 students studied , 28% were suspected to have psychological disorders. These disorders were 28.9% and 26.5% among females and males respectively. There was a statistical correlation between mental health and previous physical illnesses (p<0/05). There was a significant correlation between stressful factors experienced (separation from the family, worriedness about job in future, education dissatisfaction and financial problems) with mental health. Also there was a significant correlation between mental health and educational stressful factors such as negative attitude in community about nursing and ambiguity about professional role of nurses at the time of education(p<0/05). Conclusion:With regard to the findings of the study, a number of nursing students are susceptible to mental disorders. Therefore contemplation about educational stressful factors to deminish mental problems is recommended