Factors Influencing the State Anxiety of Nursing Students before Initial Clinical Experience

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the level of state anxiety among the nursing students before their initial clinical experience and also to examine factors that influenced on their level of anxiety. Methods/Statistical Analysis: In order to achieve the purpose of this study, a survey has been conducted on freshmen students who attended three different nursing colleges from November 24th to December 5th, 2014. An analysis has also been implemented by using data collected from 207 students. Multiple regressions were utilized for the data analysis by using SPSS WIN 18.0 program. Findings: As for variables that influenced on the level of anxiety among nursing freshmen students before their initial clinical experience, factors including satisfaction on major (p<.001), satisfaction on campus practice (p=.021), traitanxiety (p<.001), competency of core nursing skill (p<.001), self-efficacy (p<.001) turned out to be significant. Before their initial clinical experience of nursing students, variables of Trait-anxiety (β=.366, p<.001), self-efficacy (β=-.173, p=.017), and major satisfaction (β=.135, p<.047) explained the level of anxiety. In addition, the explanation power of these variables turned out to be 30.8%. Improvements/Applications: What is required to relieve anxiety before initial clinical experience among nursing students in the future includes self-efficacy enhancing programs, major satisfaction, and trainanxiety relief.