Emotional Exhaustion and Secondary Traumatic Stress Experienced by Nursing Students in Intensive Care Practice: A Phenomenological Study.

AIM: This study aimed to explore nursing students' lived experiences of emotional exhaustion and distress related to exposure to patients' suffering and death during intensive care clinical placements and to understand the meanings they attributed to these experiences. BACKGROUND: Intensive care units are highly demanding clinical environments that may expose nursing students to significant emotional stress due to the critical condition of patients and the complexity of care. DESIGN: This study employed a descriptive phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods. METHODS: This study was conducted with 26 nursing students enrolled in the Faculty of Health Sciences at a university in eastern Turkey who were undertaking their intensive care placement. Data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews, allowing participants to describe their lived experiences and the meanings they attributed to them. RESULTS: The research findings revealed that the students' experiences could be grouped under four main themes: "The Emotional Burden of the Intensive Care Environment," "The Erosion of Emotional Resources," "Lasting Emotional and Cognitive Responses to Clinical Encounters," and "Coping and Support Needs." According to the participants' accounts, the intensive care environment was perceived as stressful and chaotic. Students described establishing a deep non-verbal connection with unconscious patients and expressed that witnessing patients' suffering or death triggered a sense of helplessness. Participants described distressing memories, involuntary recollections of emotionally challenging clinical events, freezing reactions, and emotional as well as physical exhaustion following their intensive care experiences. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that intensive care placements are experienced as emotionally demanding learning processes characterized by exposure to suffering, emotional burden, and lasting emotional responses. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Early recognition of emotional distress and emotional exhaustion during intensive care placements is important for supporting students' well-being. Nursing educators should provide emotional support, debriefing opportunities, and stress-management strategies to facilitate healthy professional development. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICY: Health and education policies should support psychologically safe clinical learning environments by promoting mentorship, emotional support, and collaboration between nursing schools and clinical institutions.