Peer Mentoring During Practicum to Reduce Anxiety in First-Semester Nursing Students

The clinical setting creates significant anxiety for students that can decrease their ability to learn.

This quasi-experimental study examined whether nursing students who participate in peer mentoring during their first clinical experience (n = 18) experienced less anxiety than those in traditional clinical experiences (n = 19). Anxiety was measured using the standardized State Trait Anxiety Index and the Clinical Experiences Anxiety Form (CEAF). Data were analyzed using descriptive and nonparametric statistics.

A significant decrease was demonstrated in clinical situation-specific anxiety, as measured by the CEAF, among students who were peer mentored as compared with students who were not.

Peer mentoring shows promise as an effective strategy to reduce anxiety among novice nursing students. [J Nurs Educ. 2016;55(11):651-654.].