Abstract:

Introduction: An active clinical practice in nursing education is an indisputable. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the levels of anxiety and stress experienced by nursing students studying in the classical and integrated curriculum in their first clinical practice. Method: The sample of this descriptive and cross-sectional study comprised 264 nursing students who were studying in two schools with the classical curriculum and two schools with the integrated curriculum and who had their first clinical practice. The data were collected with the Descriptive Characteristics Form, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Pagana Clinical Stress Questionnaire (CSQ) and evaluated with the percentage distribution, the difference between two means test, ANOVA and chi-square test. Results: The total mean CSQ score for all the students was 26.64±9.68. It was 22.66±9.20 for the classical program students and 28.80±9.26 for the integrated program students. The clinical stress level of the students studying in either curriculum was found to be below the general average level of stress. However, the clinical stress level was found to be significantly higher in integrated curriculum students who especially in female students, who felt they belonged to the nursing profession and whose satisfaction level from the education was moderate (p<0.05). The integrated program students ‘state anxiety score on the first day of the clinic program (40.88±7.47) was significantly higher than that of the classical program students (38.78±5.82) (t=2524, p=.012). Conclusion: It can be said that while the clinical stress level on the first day experienced by the students in both programs was lower than the average, their clinical anxiety level was higher than the average, and that the integrated program students’ clinical stress and anxiety levels were higher than those of classical program students

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