title: Reducing student anxiety by using clinical peer mentoring with beginning nursing students.
abstract: Beginning nursing students' initial clinical experience can be stressful and intimidating, particularly for young students having no prior healthcare experience. The authors discuss a peer mentoring project that was used to reduce anxiety during the students' first hospital experience. Both the mentored freshmen and the sophomore medical-surgical students who served as mentors reported benefits such as less anxiety, a less stressful clinical learning environment, and an increase in student interaction at various levels in the curriculum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Southeast Missouri State University, One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, USA. asprengel@semo.edu
authors.forename: Ann D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Sprengel
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Job
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods*; D005181:Faculty, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008611:Mentors / Q000523:psychology*; D015146:Midwestern United States; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D010379:Peer Group; D013527:Perioperative Nursing / Q000193:education; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012944:Social Support; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires