Abstract:

Aim: Although anxiety is a feeling experienced by all living things, people experience it in every period of their life. Nursing students complete their education with clinical experience. This study was conducted to determine the level of anxiety experienced by first-year nursing students before clinical practice. Methods: The study is a cross-sectional study conducted in February 2017. The universe of the study consisted of 89 students enrolled in the first year of the nursing department. The data were collected using a descriptive questionnaire prepared by the researchers and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. In the analysis of the data, mean, standard deviation, Student t-test and One-Way Anova test, Mann Whitney U test, and Kruskall Wallis analysis were used in the SPSS 22 package program. Results: 74% of the students are female, 26% are male, the average age is 19. The average state anxiety score of the students was 41.20 ± 4.24 and the average trait anxiety score was 45.80 ± 4.89, indicating that they have moderate anxiety. Since the state anxiety score was 43.47 ± 4.33 among men and 40.40 ± 3.94 among women, it was found to be significantly higher among men. 69.7% of the students stated that they felt excitement (69,7%), fear (32.6%), happiness (11.2%), and sadness (6.7%) before the hospital application. 82% of students stated that the most anxious thing about the implementation process was harming due to lack of skills. No significant correlation was found between being anxious due to lack of skills and finding efficient use of models, gender, and choosing the department willingly. Conclusion: Students experience moderate anxiety and are anxious because of doing wrong and doing harm. It is important to ensure that the student gains the desired clinical gains through effective communication and being a good role model in the clinical practice process.

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