Date of Award

Fall 2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

First Advisor

Debbie Greene, PhD, RN, CNE

Second Advisor

Debbie Grier, PhD(c), RN, MSN

Third Advisor

Margaret McIlwain, DNP, MPH, FNP-BC

Abstract

The rigorous educational experience of nursing school can cause stress and anxiety for nursing students. Identifying techniques to help decrease stress and anxiety during a nursing program can be beneficial to the students’ overall health and mental well-being as well as to their academic success. A quasi-experimental design was utilized to examine if a peer evaluation technique (PET) during clinical skill practice sessions decreases anxiety prior to the students’ skill performance evaluation with nursing faculty. The State Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaire was utilized to measure anxiety levels. The difference in post state anxiety scores between the control group (M = 44.6, SD = 13.4) and the experimental group (M = 39.4, SD = 9.2) did not indicate statistical significance; t(42.6) = -1.6, p = .12. A relationship was not found between state anxiety levels prior to skill performance evaluation with nursing faculty and participant characteristics such as age, gender, overall grade point average, ethnicity, or previous certification or licensure. Several limitations included a small convenience sample, lack of ethnic diversity among participants, limited timeframe, and possible sharing of experiences between participants. Future research opportunities to examine the effectiveness of PET include increasing sample size, increasing timeframe and number of clinical skills, and utilizing multiple sites or cohorts. This study adds to the body of literature on strategies to reduce nursing students’ anxiety during clinical skill performance.

Additional Files
TRCP Final Approval 10-7-16.pdf (33 kB)
TRCP Final Approval - PStewart
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