The relationship between nursing students' beliefs about mental illness and their anxiety prior to a clinical experience in psychiatric nursing

This descriptive study examined nursing students' beliefs about mental illness related to their anxieties prior to entering their first clinical experience in nursing. The purposes were, first, to determine if there was a significant difference in anticipatory anxiety between nursing students immediately prior to their clinical experience in psychiatric nursing and those entering other clinical areas of nursing; second, to determine the relationship between nursing students' beliefs about mental illness and their anxiety prior to entry into the psychiatric nursing experience; third, to draw implications from the findings that may be useful to nurse educators in addressing student anxiety prior to clinical experience. The subjects were 160 junior nursing students enrolled in three collegiate nursing programs in the fall of 1987. Subjects were voluntary and anonymous. Data were collected from two groups: students prior to a clinical experience in psychiatric nursing and students prior to other clinical experiences, including medical-surgical, pediatric, and maternity nursing. Data were collected through the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), developed by Spielberg; the Opinions About Mental Illness Questionnaire (OMI), developed by Cohen and Struening; and the Background Data Questionnaire (BDQ), developed by the author. The results of a t-test analysis of the mean of students' state anxiety scores prior to clinical experience in psychiatric nursing and other clinical experiences indicated no significant differences between the groups. Psychiatric nursing instructors, therefore, need not have a special concern about anticipatory state anxiety for their groups of nursing students. The F-test results of Pearson Product Moment Correlations varied by clinical and school groups, so solid inferences cannot be made about the associations between trait-state anxiety and the five beliefs about mental illness identified by the OMI. However, attitude orientations of authoritarianism did appear to be significantly correlated with trait and state anxiety. This correlation was particularly true of students over age 25. Nursing students prior to a clinical experience in psychiatric nursing who are made aware of the correlation between high state or trait anxiety and authoritarian attitude might want to work with their clinical instructor to further their own growth and learning about mental illness.