Effect of Acupressure on Pre-Exam Anxiety in Nursing Students

Academic stress and anxiety are experienced by students as a consequence of examinations.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether or not auricular acupressure therapy can reduce exam anxiety, state anxiety and trait anxiety in nursing students.

A single blinded randomized control trial was designed.

The study was conducted at one univeristy in Daegu City, South Korea.

A total of Fifty-eight sophomore nursing students were initially recruited for the study and were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group (n = 29 each). In the experimental group, 2 participants dropped out and 1 dropped out in the control group before completing the study, resulting in a final count of n = 27 for the experimental group and n = 28 for the control group.

Participants in the experimental group received auricular acupressure at the Shen Men point and endocrine point bilaterally, and participants in the control group received the intervention at a sham point bilaterally.

Test anxiety levels were rated with the Korean version of the Revised Test anxiety Scale and state-trait anxiety levels were determined with the Korean version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y before the intervention and immediately after the examination. Data analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS WIN 25.0 software program.

After controlling for baseline outcome values, auricular acupressure therapy was effective in decreasing the test anxiety level; however, no differences were found in state anxiety or trait anxiety.

Auricular acupressure therapy is effective in reducing test anxiety in students prior to taking an examination.