Abstract
BackgroundNowadays, there are common phenomena among college nursing students who reported increasingly test anxiety. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to increase understanding of American community college nursing students and their experiences using anextended time and other form of supportive accommodation to address test anxiety.MethodsThis study utilized focus group interview and carefully selected eight participants to join this research. The authors completed coding, categorizing, and identification of themes based on Moustakes’ (1994, in Phenomenological research methods. Sage, Thousand Oaks) approach to data analysis. A transcription of the focus group recording was read to inform a general impression of the experiences of our participants. A final list of significant statements was developed, and from this list the authors grouped them into larger units of information and from these units, identified common themes (Creswell 2013 in Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. Sage, Thousand Oaks).ResultsImplementation of, and data analysis from, an eight-member focus group interview revealed six themes: (a) students’ feelings of being anxious and overwhelmed, (b) the impact of nursing school stress, (c) the perceived benefits of using test accommodations, (d) environmental influences, (e) challenges and supportive structures for securing accommodations, and (f) metaperception of stigmatization.ConclusionsIn this study, students reported a benefit from using extended time for testing and noted the importance of the testing environment as an essential feature of the accommodation. Challenges faced by students included the ordeal of getting a diagnosis and potential for stigmatization. Participants indicated teachers provided essential support during this process. Study results suggest extended time accommodation provides an added level of fairness in the process of learning evaluation.
Highlights
Nowadays, there are common phenomena among college nursing students who reported increasingly test anxiety
In nursing schools, where competition and high-stakes testing exist in most programs, the stressful nature of participating in a nursing program may increase the number of students citing an anxiety disorder as the basis for applying for extendedtime accommodations to counterbalance of the test anxiety
The research question that guides this study is, “What are the experiences of nursing students using extended time as an accommodation for test anxiety?” This question holds a unique distinction in that it challenges the validity of a common intervention for test anxiety and focuses on a student population that experiences more anxiety than others due to the differences of accommodations during tests
Summary
There are common phenomena among college nursing students who reported increasingly test anxiety The purpose of this phenomenological study was to increase understanding of American community college nursing students and their experiences using anextended time and other form of supportive accommodation to address test anxiety. As policy makers focus on the importance of higher education, college enrollment stands at an all-time high (National Center for Education Statistics 2015). This increased enrollment results in a rise in the number of students with disabilities. Students request extended testing time more than any other accommodation (Bolt et al 2011; Kurth and Mellard 2006). While quantitative research regarding extended-time accommodations abounds (Bolt et al 2011; Kurth and Mellard 2006; Lewandowski et al 2014), a dearth of qualitative evidence exists
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