EFFECT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL INOCULATION ON ANXIETY AMONG UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF NURSING, UNIVERSITY OF PORT HARCOURT

Abstract

This research was carried out to ascertain the effect of Psychological Inoculation on anxiety among undergraduate nursing students in the department of nursing, University of Port Harcourt. Two objectives, 2 research questions and 2 corresponding hypotheses were formulated to guide this research. The instrument for gathering of data was a modified or adapted “Student Nurses Anxiety Inventory” (SNAI) from Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Mood Over Mind Anxiety Inventory (MOMAI). 319 undergraduate Nurses representing 100% of the population were used and 228 of them (subjects) indicated positive of anxiety, out of which 95 student nurses of 100-200 levels formed the control Group, 80 student nurses of 300 – 400 levels formed Experimental Group 1. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results of the study indicated significant high level of anxiety among the undergraduate nursing students of university of Port Harcourt, with significant effect of psychological inoculation on anxiety reduction of Undergraduate Nurses with anxiety. It was recommended among others that curriculum planner, health teachers and lecturers should expose new students’ anxiety reduction orientation.