interventional strategies to decrease nursing student anxiety

Moscaritolo wanted to investigate answers to the severe demands of clinical education among undergraduate students by investigating interventional ways to lower nursing student anxiety in the clinical learning setting. Importantly, worry and tension among clinical study students result in poor coping capacities as well as poor performance. Anxiety and stress can also lead to the inability to solve difficulties, decreased concentration, and memory loss. As a result, the objective of this paper was to provide insight into how comedy, mindfulness training, peer instructors, and mentors could be used to alleviate anxiety and tension among undergraduate nursing students in the clinical learning setting. The study further applied the Neuman Systems Model as the conceptual framework as a means of exploring the interventional strategies to reduce stress among undergraduate nursing students. Neuman System Model classifies stress factors into three categories that are intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal.

Consequently, in discussing the interventional strategies, Moscaritolo shows how humor can be used in reducing anxiety among nursing students through its ability to strengthen social relationships, increasing self-esteem, and focusing attention on other benefits (Moscaritolo, 2009). Also, peer instruction and mentoring strategies are effective ways applicable in reducing anxiety among undergraduate nursing students. According to the study, Neuman System Model considers both peer education and mentoring as primary intervention due to their role in protecting student’s line of defense. Additionally, peer instructors can be used to help students identified as having stress and anxiety develop resistance. Notably, there are ethical considerations that ought to be captured in the use of the suggested strategies but have been omitted. Nevertheless, the purpose of the research, the literature reviewed and the conceptual framework reveal a strong congruency.

Background to the Study

Stress and anxiety are real problems that face baccalaureate nursing students in the learning environment. Providing an insight into the interventional strategies to decrease nursing student anxiety in the clinical learning environment is significant to nursing in two major ways. It results in success in clinical rotation through successful completion of nursing studies. Secondly, it promotes a supportive learning environment to undergraduate nursing students which is a prerequisite to better performance and competency as young professionals. Therefore, the objective of undertaking the study that is the use of mindfulness training, humor and peer instructors, and mentors to mitigate anxiety and stress among students in clinical learning environments is in agreement with the topic.

Methodology

It is apparent that the research involved the review of scientific and empirical studies to demonstrate the effects of stress and anxiety among nursing students. Some of the original studies used include Beddoe and Murphy research which examined how mindfulness decrease stress and enforce empathy among nursing students. Moscaritolo also used Tanaka, Tekehara and Yamauchi’s empirical studies which involved examining the relationship between task performance and state anxiety arousal among 53 undergraduate students. In as much as most of the sources of literature reviewed are authentic, the study does not outlay the process used in the selection of these articles. Moreover, the studies do not capture any positive aspect of anxiety and other likely courses from without the learning environment.

However, the conceptual framework adopted that is Neuman System Model has substantive significance in exploring the interventional strategies in reducing stress and anxiety among nursing students. The model postulates that every individual has a pressure control mechanism derived from basic survival factors such as response patterns and genetic structures among others. These aspects cumulatively interact to form a standard line of defense that defines a state of wellness in an individual. Therefore, the experiences that students undergo in the clinical learning environment expose them to stress which invades the normal lines of defense causing anxiety which is referred to as variance from wellness.

Findings

In regards to humor as an interventional strategy, the study examined the concept in two ways that are a teaching strategy as well as its general use in the clinical learning environment. The integration of humor as a teaching strategy showed a positive correlation with the reduction of stress and anxiety. As instructors employed humor in their teaching approaches, students demonstrated higher levels of content grasping. Other associated benefits revealed included developing a strong social relationship, learning facilitation and focusing attention. On the other hand, the use of humor in the clinical learning indicated a decrease in fears and anxieties due to its impacts in inducing free learning environment. Peer instruction and mentoring also showed significant influence in reducing the anxiety among nursing students. In this case, peer instructors serving as teaching assistants to the students undertook roles like helping students set up experiments, guiding students in performing computer documentation, maintaining safety, and other technical skills.

Meanwhile mentoring involved the incorporation of nursing personnel in study processes within the clinical learning environment. In both cases, there were improved clinical performances indicating reduced stress and anxiety among the nursing students. Mindfulness training as another strategic intervention involving yoga, qigong, sitting meditation as well as other relaxation technics reduced anxiety among the nursing students. It became apparent that mindfulness training enhanced the capability of participants to manage stressful situations. Therefore, stressful situations that nursing students face in the clinical learning environment and classroom set up which results in anxiety could be achieved through mindfulness training which enabled students to quiet their mind. All the strategies suggested has noticeable impacts on the performance of nursing students which translates into production of the competent workforce in the nursing profession.

Ethical Consideration

It can be postulated that the sources used in suggesting the interventional strategies decrease stress and anxiety among baccalaureate nursing students incorporated the acceptable ethical standards. As a research tradition in medical realms, empirical studies in which human beings are used as a specimen, there is need to consider the principles non-maleficence, autonomy, beneficence, and justice as basic tenets of ethics. Notably, the only ethical concept expressed in the study is thinly unveiled in the cautionary aspect when applying humor as a teaching strategy. In this case, emphasis on cultural diversities is an important ethical issue. However, there is a general neglect of ethical standards in the selection of sources of information.

Conclusion

It is evident that anxiety and stress in the clinical learning environment are problems that even nursing students acknowledge as common and detrimental to good performance. Based on Neuman System Model, the study has revealed that interventional strategies such as humor, mindfulness training, and use of peer instructors, and mentors yielded positive outcomes in the clinical learning environment. Notably, anxiety is considered to be a performance enhancer. On the contrary, when it is accompanied by stress, it breaks students’ line of defense and jeopardizes success. The growing concerns by the clinical nursing faculties on how best to contain anxiety improve learning outcomes and increase the retention rates can adequately be addressed if the suggested interventional strategies are implemented. Empirical studies involving the application of interventional procedures may not be adequate proof. Conversely, relentless use of these methods and the resulting success serve as sufficient evidence to integrate them into clinical education. It is evident that stress associated with clinical nursing practice continues to exist. However, the quest to manage the anxiety in the clinical environment through the application of the suggested interventional strategies will help save the future of the nursing profession.

Reference

Moscaritolo, L. M. (2009). Interventional strategies to decrease nursing student anxiety in the clinical learning environment. Journal of nursing education, 48(1), 17-23.