[The relationships among stress, physio-psycho-social status, coping behaviors and personality traits of nursing students during first time clinical practice].

First-time clinical practice is stressful. However, every person's perception of stress, responses to stress and coping methods are different. It is important to examine the relationships between these phenomena and personality traits. The subjects of this study were 280 nursing students who had undertaken their first clinical practice. This study used Clinical Practice Stress Scale, Clinical Practice Physio-psycho-social Response Scale, Coping Behavior Inventory of Clinical Practice and Chi test to examine the following four questions for the students: (1) the type and frequency of stressors occurring during their first clinical practice, (2) physio-psycho-social status; (3) the coping behaviors utilized by the students; (4) the relationship among perception of stress, coping behaviors, physio-psycho-social status and personality traits. The results of this study showed that the most common stressors were lack of professional knowledge and skill, and taking care of patients. The most common response of the students was social behavioral response, followed by emotional response. Physical response rarely occur. The most common coping behavior utilized by the students was keeping optimistic, followed by transferring and problem solving. Avoidance behaviors were least one. In addition, the results of this study show that the perception of stress, coping behaviors and psychosocial status are significantly related to personality characteristics, including introversion-extroversion, social adaptiveness, and emotional stability. These results may help nurses to better understand the phenomena of stress, coping and adaptation. They may also help nursing educators understand the difficulties of nursing students and, based on individual difference, assist them individually in order to promote the quality of clinical practice.