Investigation of the relationship between the self-efficacy levels in clinical practice and coping behaviors with stress among international nursing students

In this era of rapid globalization, our knowledge regarding the clinical performance perceptions and stress coping behaviors of international students in nursing education is quite limited. The unexplored nature of this topic has the potential to manifest as future clinical challenges. To examine the relationship between international nursing students' perceived self-efficacy in clinical applications and their coping behaviors with stress. Our cross-sectional and correlational study collected data from 117 international nursing students at a state university between June 2022 and July 2023. The data collection tools included the Participant Identification Form, Self-Efficacy in Clinical Performance Scale (SECP), and The Coping Behavior Inventory with Stress Scale for Nursing Students (CBIS-NS). t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, and Bonferroni test were used for data analysis. Students, predominantly Azerbaijani (15.4 %) and 64.1 % female, engaged in practices, mainly in medical (34.2 %) and surgical units (33.3 %). Clinical self-efficacy was high, stress coping moderate. A significant positive link existed between coping behaviors and clinical self-efficacy (p