Background: Clinical practice is an important component of nursing education. Previous studies found that nursing students experienced an anticipatory anxiety before clinical practice, influencing psychological adaptation and learning fficiency during clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons of anticipatory anxiety and coping strategies before clinical practice for nursing students.
Methods: This study used a qualitative research design. Twenty-one nursing students of a nursing college in the south of Taiwan participated this study. The focus group interviews were administered one month before clinical practice. The verbatim transcription was analyzed by content analysis.
Results: The anticipatory anxiety of nursing students before clinical practice included three themes and six sub-themes: (1) the role for the first clinical practice: an assistant or a learner; (2) the differences between classroom and hospital: difference between simulated patients and real patients, difference between homework and clinical reports; and (3) the attitudes of clinical supervisors: serious or inconsiderate. The coping strategies included four dimensions: problem focused coping-approach, problem focused coping-avoidance, emotional focused coping-approach, and emotional focused copingavoidance.
Conclusions: The results of this study will be offered to the nursing educators to help nursing students explore the reasons of their anticipatory anxiety before clinical practice, improve coping strategies of problem-solving and emotional management, and increase psychological adaptation and learning efficiency.