Year-end Sale % OFF 
Abstract
BackgroundHigh stress levels amongst undergraduates (particularly in relation to assessment) and efforts to improve mental wellbeing have been increasingly reported in the veterinary educational literature. However reports to date have primarily focused on the experiences of students of veterinary medicine, rather than veterinary nursing students.MethodsThe purpose of this mixed method sequential explanatory study was to establish the “Big-five” personality traits and quantify the level of test anxiety associated with objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) amongst a cohort of 23 final year veterinary nursing students at an Irish third level college. The 12 item Brief FRIEDBEN Test Anxiety Scale (B-FTAS) and the 20 item mini International Personality Item Pool (mini-IPIP) were used to identify test anxiety levels and personality traits in this cohort. Focus groups were then employed to examine the effectiveness of a coaching intervention in ameliorating this test anxiety.ResultsThe initial, quantitative, phase found these students to have higher levels of test anxiety than previously reported for undergraduates sitting written examinations. No association was found between test anxiety and neurotic personality traits in this student cohort. In the qualitative follow up phase the coaching intervention was reported to have been helpful in equipping the students to better manage test anxiety. The OSCE stressors identified in this study closely resembled those previously reported by nursing and midwifery students.ConclusionsThe shared experience of the coaching intervention and formative OSCE was reported to have been helpful in empowering the students to manage assessment-associated anxiety. Implications and recommendations for educators were identified.
Highlights
High stress levels amongst undergraduates and efforts to improve mental wellbeing have been increasingly reported in the veterinary educational literature
No association was observed between test anxiety and neuroticism scores using the Spearman rho correlation coefficient
We concluded that test anxiety and neuroticism scores were not linked in this student cohort
Summary
High stress levels amongst undergraduates ( in relation to assessment) and efforts to improve mental wellbeing have been increasingly reported in the veterinary educational literature. Stress levels during veterinary undergraduate training have been linked to high workload and assessment burdens [8]. This is mirrored in the medical nursing and midwifery literature, where both educators and student nurses report performance-based competency assessments to be potentially stressful experiences [9,10,11,12]. The importance of mental wellbeing and efforts to improve it are increasingly
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
