Abstract
GOAL: validate a short version of the Instrument for assessment of stress in nursing students in the Brazilian reality. METHOD: Methodological study conducted with 1047 nursing students from five Brazilian institutions, who answered the 30 items initially distributed in eight domains. Data were analyzed in the R Statistical Package and in the latent variable analysis, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach's alpha and item-total correlation. RESULTS: The short version of the instrument had 19 items distributed into four domains: Environment, Professional Training, Theoretical Activities and Performance of Practical Activities. The confirmatory analysis showed absolute and parsimony fit to the proposed model with satisfactory residual levels. Alpha values per factor ranged from 0.736 (Environment) to 0.842 (Performance of Practical Activities). CONCLUSION: The short version of the instrument has construct validity and reliability for application to Brazilian nursing undergraduates at any stage of the course.