Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on nursingeducation, with many programs abruptly discontinuing clinical practice. This has raised concerns among nursing students about their clinicalskill development. Because of this, the researcher was motivated to learn how nursing students perceive stress and develop coping mechanisms for returning to nursing colleges following the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess perceived stress and coping strategies among nursing students toward rejoining college after COVID -19 pandemic.Ananalyticalcross-sectionalstudywas conducted using proportionatestratified simple random sampling technique among 317 nursing students of bachelor level at all nursing colleges affiliated to Purbanchal University in Kathmandu Valley. Data was collected usingaself-administeredquestionnaire that included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Brief COPEScale.The majority of respondents (71.3%) reported moderate stress levels, with 28.7%reportinghighstresslevels.Half of the respondents (51.7%) had low coping levels, while the other half (48.3%) had high coping levels. There was a significant association between the level of coping and mother's occupation (p = 0.003). The Pearson correlation between perceived stress and coping strategies was moderately positive (r = 0.256, p = 0.001).Nursing college administration and instructors can play a role in reducing student stress and promoting coping strategies by maintaining a safecollege environment for students rejoining college after the COVID-19 pandemic.