Nursing Students’ Anxiety And Stress Levels And Contributed Factors Before-During And After First Clinical Placement

Aim: This study was carried out to determine the clinical stress and state-trait anxiety levels and contributed factors of first grade nursing students before, during and after the first clinical placements . Method: This descriptive study was carried out between February -May 2012 with 94 first-year nursing students in the Nursing Department of the Health Sciences Faculty of an university. Data was collected with “Information Form”, the “State-Trait Anxiety Inventory”, and the “Clinical Stress Questionnaire”. Data was evaluated via number-percentage distributions, Friedman Variance, t-test/Mann-Whitney-U, Variance/Kruskal Wallis, and Pearson/ Spearman Correlation analyses. Results: Student nurses’ state-trial anxiety and clinical stress levels before, during, and after the first clinical placement was found medium. It was also found that students’ anxiety and stress levels decreased once their clinical expertise increased (p 0.05). There was statistically significant difference between anxiety and stress levels and students’ willingness to choose their department, liking nursing profession, and their intent to work as a nurse after graduation(p 0.05). Conclusion: According to results of the study students’ trial anxiety and stress levels were found decreased with clinical experince, while state anxiety levels found to be increased after first clinical replacement. It is also found that some sociodemographic characteristics of students who had medium level state-trial anxiety and clinical stress affected their anxiety and stress level.