The Effects of Augmented Reality on Prelicensure Nursing Students' Anxiety Levels.

Abstract

Prelicensure nursing students experience high anxiety as they enter the clinical setting, which can have a negative impact on learning care performance and critical thinking. This study explored the viability of an innovative technological teaching strategy, augmented reality (AR), as a platform to prepare students and decrease their anxiety levels when entering a new environment. A pretest/posttest quasiexperimental design was used to assess the effect of AR 360 photosphere on preli-censure nursing students' anxiety levels as they entered a new clinical environment compared with anxiety levels of prelicensure nursing students who participated in the traditional faculty-led orientation method. Students from three midwestern colleges of nursing completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory before and after completing the AR 360 photosphere orientation or a faculty-led orientation. An independent t test revealed no difference in students' anxiety levels between the two methods of orientation. Although there were no significant differences in nursing students' anxiety levels between the two methods of clinical orientation, the AR 360 can be a valuable method of orientation that saves faculty time and ensures more consistent and uniform content compared with the traditional faculty orientation method. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(3):142-148.].