Effect of aromatherapy on test anxiety before objective structured clinical examinations, among final year undergraduate nursing students

Test anxiety is an important factor that negatively affects nursing student's success during the education process. Concerning the prevalence of test anxiety among students, this study was conducted to determine the effect of aromatherapy on test anxiety among nursing student in Islamic Azad University, Karaj branch 2019.Materials &

 This single blinded randomized clinical trial consisted of last year nursing students (n=60) at faculty of nursing and midwifery, Islamic Azad University Karaj Branch. Participant randomly divided into the experimental and control groups. In pre-test, demographic data and Sarason anxiety questionnaires were filled by all students. Then inhalation aromatherapy was performed for students in the experimental group. The control group received no intervention. After 15 minutes, sarason test anxiety questionnaire was filled by two groups again. The collected data were analyzed by the statistical tests (i.e. χ2, paired t-test, independent sample t-test and analysis of covariance) using SPSS 18.

 The results showed a statistically significant reduction in the anxiety score in the both group. The rate of decrease in anxiety score in the control and treatment group was 1.13 and 3.8 respectively (p-value=0.029 and p-value<0.001). Furthermore the results of analysis of covariance showed, the amount of anxiety score before treatment have great effect on the anxiety score after treatment (p-value<0.001) also the treatment have little effect on the anxiety score (p-value=0.049).

The result showed, aromatherapy may be an effective method to reduce test among nursing students. Using aromatherapy in testing environments for students who have test-related anxiety may be a good option to help students. Further evaluation is needed to correlate the impact of aromatherapy on anxiety before a definitive conclusion can be drawn.