Nurses’ anxiety central to their difficulties in academic development

Researchers from the Department of Nursing Physiotherapy of the University of Lleida have carried out research into the need to prevent rising anxiety in nursing students revealing a direct correlation between feelings of anxiety and disrupted or affected academic development.

Researcher Olga Masot Ariño has confirmed that “this research is of interest to the entire community that studies and/or works in the field of mental health and university teaching, given its focus on the diagnosis of anxiety in nursing students’. As reported by Institut de Recerca Biomedica.

Due to the long process of diagnosing anxiety via the State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI), many sufferers experience ongoing problems for a long time without receiving adequate medical help or advice on coping methods.

This recent research has validated the Visual Analogue Anxiety Scale (VAS-A) for rapid detection of anxiety disorders, meaning people can receive help much quicker.

Researcher and dean of the faculty of Nursing and Physiotherapy (FIF) of the Udl, Judith Roca Llobet has emphasised the cruciality of evaluating and creating ‘resources to help nursing students to cope effectively with their emotions during periods of stress, such as the one experienced with the virtualization of teaching and the application of health care during the toughest months of the pandemic”.

Monitoring anxiety in general has also been recommended to ensure the stable mental health of nursing students, as well as psychological intervention strategies to combat the lasting effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

Further details about this research can be found here.