Test-taking anxiety among nursing & general college students.

This study examined whether nursing students experience an unusual amount of debilitative anxiety in academic achievement, compared to general university students and provided senior psychiatric nursing students with a hands-on experience in research. A nonprobability convenience sample of 225 students was drawn from a university in the eastern United States. Alpert and Haber's Achievement Anxiety Test was administered to 94 nursing students and 131 general university students. Results indicated that nursing students do not have a statistically significantly higher debilitative anxiety than the general student population. However, all students experienced significantly higher levels of debilitative anxiety than were found by Alpert and Haber. Implications for academic nursing are discussed.