Integrative Review of Sources of Baccalaureate Nursing Students' Clinical Practice Anxiety

Nursing education research and anecdotal literature has revealed that undergraduate nursing students report anxiety related to clinical practice. Most published studies have focused on the effectiveness of interventions to reduce anxiety; only a few identify specific sources of clinical practice anxiety.

We conducted an integrative literature review to understand the sources of nursing students' practice-related anxiety and how this anxiety has been measured.

We classified sources of practice-related anxiety into nine themes grouped into five categories: consequences of making a mistake; fear of the unknown; incivility of staff members or teachers; threat to self-concept, image, or health; and theory-practice gap. Practice-related anxiety was measured quantitatively with various surveys and qualitatively using semistructured individual or group interviews and students' journal entries.

Different sources of practice-related anxiety likely require distinct interventions. Further research is recommended to identify effective interventions to reduce anxiety related to each of the identified themes. [.