Abstract
Background: Enhancing resilience in nursing education is considered essential for preparing mature and assertive nursing students who are capable of thinking critically and engaging in self-reflection to manage the stressful encounters of their academic, work, and social life. This study aimed to identify the association between resilience and stress among nursing students at a government university. A descriptive correlational research study was conducted on a sample of 315 nursing students in a Government University's Faculty of Nursing in Jeddah city. Two self-administered questionnaires, the Perceived stress scale ( PSS) and Resilience Scale (RS-14), were used to collect the data. Nearly half of the nursing students had moderate stress, while more than one third had low stress. Similarly, almost half of the sampled nursing students had moderate resilience, almost a quarter of the students had high resilience, and the other quarter had low resilience. Pearson correlation revealed that there was a low and negative significant relationship between stress and resilience. The analysis of the collected data showed a statistically significant low negative correlation between the variables. This result suggests that as stress increases, resilience decreases, and vice versa. Therefore, the development of programs that focus on improving self-efficacy and teaching mindfulness and coping skills is recommended to aid the development of resilience in nursing students throughout their nursing education. This will help them proceed towards their future career and social life.