Implementation of a Mindfulness Activity for Nursing Students with Test Anxiety


Book Description

Undergraduate nursing students are voicing a high level of test anxiety related to the high stakes testing within their learning environment. Test anxiety has been well documented in nursing education (Bartlett, Taylor, & Nelson, 2016; Duty, Christian, Loftus, & Zappi, 2016; Gibson, 2014). Quinn and Peters (2016) noted that the "presence of high-stakes comprehensive examinations and the consequences of poor performance complicates test anxiety for nursing students" (p. 146). High stakes testing is not a new educational concept, yet test anxiety continues to escalate each year, especially in nursing (Quinn & Peters, 2016). Text anxiety interventions within the curriculum may prove helpful in nursing students' success. Within studies pertaining to test anxiety, mindfulness has helped decrease test anxiety (Bamber & Schneider, 2016; Ratanasiripong et al., 2015; Spadaro & Hunker, 2016). Mindfulness is considered a strategy used in the third wave of behavioral change approaches; therefore, systematic desensitization was used in a mindfulness intervention for test anxiety. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the impact a mindfulness intervention, using systematic desensitization, had on community college nursing students' test anxiety levels and test scores. Data were collected and analyzed using a sample of 107 associate degree nursing students from a community college in Texas. The intervention group listened to a multimedia Confidence Training for Tests between nursing exams. Post-intervention test anxiety scores were significantly lower (p




Exploring Test Anxiety in BSN Nursing Students


Book Description

Test anxiety is a phenomenon that was identified through research in the domains of education and psychology during the 1950s–1960s. As test anxiety and its effects have been identified and addressed in nursing programs, the same treatment modalities have been applied without evidence that nursing students experience test anxiety in the same manner as other students. The purpose of this study was to describe test anxiety as experienced by BSN nursing students using the sequential explanatory mixed methods design in an effort to gain insight into the anxiety experience of nursing students. A sample of 73 junior and senior nursing students was surveyed about their test anxiety experience. Survey results support that the test anxiety experience of nursing students is similar to other students based upon symptoms exhibited during testing (physical symptoms 71%, behavioral symptoms 62%, and cognitive symptoms 81%). High stakes testing was identified by 98% (n=72) of the students as the major trigger of test anxiety. All surveyed students (n=73) reported experiencing some level of test anxiety. From the survey’s sample population, a subset of BSN students (n=7) volunteered and completed individual interpretive phenomenology meetings. The Parse Phenomenological Hermeneutic Research Method was used for data analysis. Reoccurring themes extrapolated from the research included: navigating a nursing program is not intuitive, consistency and organization within a nursing program is necessary to decrease student anxiety, and the volume of information in a nursing course contributes to test anxiety. This study concludes that the test anxiety experience in BSN nursing students presents identifiable triggers and characteristics that affect program retention and progression.










Evaluation and Testing in Nursing Education


Book Description

Designated a Doody's Core Title and Essential Purchase! "Without question, this book should be on every nurse educator's bookshelf, or at least available through the library or nursing program office. Certainly, all graduate students studying to be nurse educators should have a copy." --Nursing Education Perspectives "This [third edition] is an invaluable resource for theoretical and practical application of evaluation and testing of clinical nursing students. Graduate students and veteran nurses preparing for their roles as nurse educators will want to add this book to their library." Score: 93, 4 stars --Doody's "This 3rd edition. . . .has again given us philosophical, theoretical and social/ethical frameworks for understanding assessment and measurement, as well as fundamental knowledge to develop evaluation tools for individual students and academic programs." -Nancy F. Langston, PhD, RN, FAAN Dean and Professor Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing All teachers need to assess learning. But often, teachers are not well prepared to carry out the tasks related to evaluation and testing. This third edition of Evaluation and Testing in Nursing Education serves as an authoritative resource for teachers in nursing education programs and health care agencies. Graduate students preparing for their roles as nurse educators will also want to add this book to their collection. As an inspiring, award-winning title, this book presents a comprehensive list of all the tools required to measure students' classroom and clinical performance. The newly revised edition sets forth expanded coverage on essential concepts of evaluation, measurement, and testing in nursing education; quality standards of effective measurement instruments; how to write all types of test items and establish clinical performance parameters and benchmarks; and how to evaluate critical thinking in written assignments and clinical performance. Special features: The steps involved in test construction, with guidelines on how to develop test length, test difficulty, item formats, and scoring procedures Guidelines for assembling and administering a test, including design rules and suggestions for reproducing the test Strategies for writing multiple-choice and multiple-response items How to develop test items that prepare students for licensure and certification examinations Like its popular predecessors, this text offers a seamless blending of theoretical and practical insight on evaluation and testing in nursing education, thus serving as an invaluable resource for both educators and students.