Paper
Friday, July 13, 2007
This presentation is part of : Nursing Education Strategies
The effect of health beliefs on asking for treatment for exam anxiety among nursing students in Israel
Uri Markman, RN, MA1, Chaya Balik, RN, PhD2, Hedva Bornstein-Berkovitz, PhD3, and Mally Ehrenfeld, PhD, RN3. (1) Shenbrun Academic Nursing School, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, (2) Nursing Department, Shoenburn Academic Nursing School, Tel Aviv, Israel, (3) Nursing Program, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Learning Objective #1: Identify students that suffer from exam anxiety, and to detect behaviors that indicate anxiety in clinical performance.
Learning Objective #2: Prepare an anxiety support system for theses students in order to maximize their achievements for the benefit of the patients.

The effect of health beliefs on asking for treatment for exam anxiety among nursing students in Israel

 

 

Background: Exams anxiety, one of the variations of performance anxiety, is a widespread phenomenon throughout the students in the milieu in general, and in nursing students in particular. Exams anxiety has a detrimental effect on the student's achievements and in the personal and professional development.  Therefore it is important to investigate the factors influencing responsiveness to treatment for exam anxiety Aim: to assess the degree of influence of health beliefs on the extent of asking for treatment for exam anxiety  

Method: The research tool consisted two elements: The Friedben Scale for measuring exam anxiety, and a questionnaire on health beliefs with regards to exam anxiety. Results: 246 nursing students participated. 100 where identified as suffering from exam anxiety. The findings indicate a statistically significant difference between average perception of the effectiveness of treating exam anxiety (t(85)=-2.403; p<0.05), the perception of the seriousness of exam anxiety  (t(85)=-2.564; p<0.05), the motivation to succeed academically  (t(85)=-3.323; p<0.05), the perception of the chance of experiencing exam anxiety  (t(85)=-2.403; p<0.05), and the perception of the obstacles of the treatment for exam anxiety  (t(85)= 4.818; p<0.05) among respondents who agreed to participate in a program to treat exam anxiety and those who refused to do so. In addition, the reasons and explanations for refusal to participate in the program to treat exam anxiety were sampled.