The Emotional Cost of Nursing School: Depression

Medscape November 19, 2024
Jodi Helmer

Nursing is a competitive field. In 2022, nursing schools rejected more than 78,000 qualified applications, and the students whose applications were accepted faced demanding schedules and rigorous academics and clinical rotations. Is this a recipe for depression?

In 2024, 38% of nursing students experienced depression — a 9.3% increase over 2019, according to research from higher education research group Degreechoices. Catherine A. Stubin, PhD, RN, assistant professor of nursing at Rutgers University–Camden, in Camden, New Jersey, calls it “a mental health crisis in nursing.”

“Nursing is a very rigorous, difficult, psychologically and physically demanding profession,” she said. “If students don’t have the tools and resources to adequately deal with these stressors in nursing school, it’s going to carry over to...

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