Effect of intensive care simulation on anxiety of nursing students in the clinical ICU.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of a campus critical care simulation on anxiety of nursing students in the clinical intensive care unit. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design using a sample of convenience. SETTING: Large Midwestern university. SUBJECTS: Second semester, junior level nursing students enrolled in a generic baccalaureate nursing program. Students currently enrolled in an adult medical-nursing course with one allotted day for a campus critical care laboratory and a clinical day in affiliated community hospitals. OUTCOME MEASURES: Reduction in anxiety, as measured by the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, related to psychomotor skill performance in a highly technological clinical setting. INTERVENTION Campus critical care simulation laboratory, which provided time for information, demonstration, discussion, practice, and validation of performance skills associated with technology in a usual critical care setting. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in anxiety scores of subjects who received a campus critical care simulation before attending an actual clinical critical care experience versus those students who did not (t = 1.70, p = 0.094). There was no significant difference in anxiety scores of the experimental group after attending a campus simulation (t = 1.18, p = 0.250). Attending a campus critical care experience did not result in a decrease in critical care clinical setting anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: There are numerous reasons why students experience anxiety in the clinical setting, one of which is anxiety related to task performance. Although familiarity with psychomotor skills is beneficial, study findings indicate that familiarity with psychomotor skills is not sufficient to decrease anxiety in the critical care clinical setting.