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The Occurrence of Test Anxiety in Student Nurses in Selected Nursing Schools in Ghana

Received: 28 January 2014     Published: 28 February 2014
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Abstract

This paper examined the occurrence of test anxiety among student nurses in selected Nursing Schools in Ghana. A total of one hundred and sixty four student nurses (N= 164) were drawn from five Nursing Training Schools in Ghana using stratified sampling technique. The Westside Test Anxiety Scale was administered to students from the various schools who came to Pantang Psychiatric Hospital for affiliation. Results were analysed using the independent t test and ANOVA. The findings of the study revealed that there was no significant difference in test anxiety among the various ages of the students. Secondly, there was no significant difference in anxiety scores among males and females. Thirdly, there was no significant difference in test anxiety between Christians and Muslims. There was also a significant difference in test anxiety levels among the various types of training with Health Assistant Clinical (HAC) students reporting higher test anxiety compared to both Registered General Nursing (RGN) and Midwifery students. The final finding was that there was a significant difference in reported test anxiety levels among students from the various schools with those from private institutions reporting significantly higher levels. It was recommended that the various HAC schools should organised training programmes for students on how to prepare and take exams and tests successfully.

Published in American Journal of Applied Psychology (Volume 3, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajap.20140301.14
Page(s) 21-26
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Test Anxiety, Selected Nursing Schools, Student Nurses

References
[1] Allport, G. & Ross, J. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 5(4), 431-443.
[2] Atindanbila, S. (2000). The stress and coping strategies of lecturers at the University of Ghana Unpublished PhD Dissertation presented to the University of Ghana as partial requirement for the award of PhD degree.
[3] Baker, M., & Gorsuch, R. (1982). Trait Anxiety and Intrinsic-extrinsic Religiousness. Journal for scientific study of religion, 21(2), 199-122
[4] Capell, M.S., Blanding, Z.B., Silverstein, M.E., Takahashi, M., Newman, B., Gubi, A. & McCann, N. (2005). Test anxiety and academic performance in Undergraduate and Graduate students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(2), 268-274
[5] El-Zahhar, N. E. (1991). Cultural and Sexual differences in Test Anxiety, Triat Anxiety and Arousability in Egypt, Brazil, and the United States. Journal of Cross- Cultural Psychology, 22(2), 238-249
[6] Gorsuch, R. (1976). Religion as an significant predictor on important human behaviour. In W. Donalson, Jr.(Ed.). Research in Mental Health and Religious behaviour. Psychological studies institute.
[7] Mayco, C.M, Puryear, H., & Richek, H. (1969). MMPI correlates of religiousness in late adolescent college students. Journal of Nervous and mental disease, 149, 381-385.
[8] Silva, R. R. , Gallagher, R., Minami, B.A.(220). Cognitive –Behavioural treatments for Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents. Primary Psychiatry, 13 (5) 68-76
[9] Whitbourne, S.K.(1976). Test anxiety in Elderly and Young Adults. The Journal of Aging and Human Development,7(3), 201-210.
[10] Zeidner, M.(1998). Test anxiety: The state of the art. New York: Plenum Press.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Samuel Atindanbila, Edward Abasimi, Kingsley Nyarko, Johnson Atambila Adika. (2014). The Occurrence of Test Anxiety in Student Nurses in Selected Nursing Schools in Ghana. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 3(1), 21-26. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20140301.14

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    ACS Style

    Samuel Atindanbila; Edward Abasimi; Kingsley Nyarko; Johnson Atambila Adika. The Occurrence of Test Anxiety in Student Nurses in Selected Nursing Schools in Ghana. Am. J. Appl. Psychol. 2014, 3(1), 21-26. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20140301.14

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    AMA Style

    Samuel Atindanbila, Edward Abasimi, Kingsley Nyarko, Johnson Atambila Adika. The Occurrence of Test Anxiety in Student Nurses in Selected Nursing Schools in Ghana. Am J Appl Psychol. 2014;3(1):21-26. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20140301.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajap.20140301.14,
      author = {Samuel Atindanbila and Edward Abasimi and Kingsley Nyarko and Johnson Atambila Adika},
      title = {The Occurrence of Test Anxiety in Student Nurses in Selected Nursing Schools in Ghana},
      journal = {American Journal of Applied Psychology},
      volume = {3},
      number = {1},
      pages = {21-26},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajap.20140301.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20140301.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajap.20140301.14},
      abstract = {This paper examined the occurrence of test anxiety among student nurses in selected Nursing Schools in Ghana. A total of one hundred and sixty four student nurses (N= 164) were drawn from five Nursing Training Schools in Ghana using stratified sampling technique. The Westside Test Anxiety Scale was administered to students from the various schools who came to Pantang Psychiatric Hospital for affiliation. Results were analysed using the independent t test and ANOVA. The findings of the study revealed that there was no significant difference in test anxiety among the various ages of the students. Secondly, there was no significant difference in anxiety scores among males and females. Thirdly, there was no significant difference in test anxiety between Christians and Muslims. There was also a significant difference in test anxiety levels among the various types of training with Health Assistant Clinical (HAC) students reporting higher test anxiety compared to both Registered General Nursing (RGN) and Midwifery students. The final finding was that there was a significant difference in reported test anxiety levels among students from the various schools with those from private institutions reporting significantly higher levels. It was recommended that the various HAC schools should organised training programmes for students on how to prepare and take exams and tests successfully.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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    AU  - Samuel Atindanbila
    AU  - Edward Abasimi
    AU  - Kingsley Nyarko
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    Y1  - 2014/02/28
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajap.20140301.14
    T2  - American Journal of Applied Psychology
    JF  - American Journal of Applied Psychology
    JO  - American Journal of Applied Psychology
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    AB  - This paper examined the occurrence of test anxiety among student nurses in selected Nursing Schools in Ghana. A total of one hundred and sixty four student nurses (N= 164) were drawn from five Nursing Training Schools in Ghana using stratified sampling technique. The Westside Test Anxiety Scale was administered to students from the various schools who came to Pantang Psychiatric Hospital for affiliation. Results were analysed using the independent t test and ANOVA. The findings of the study revealed that there was no significant difference in test anxiety among the various ages of the students. Secondly, there was no significant difference in anxiety scores among males and females. Thirdly, there was no significant difference in test anxiety between Christians and Muslims. There was also a significant difference in test anxiety levels among the various types of training with Health Assistant Clinical (HAC) students reporting higher test anxiety compared to both Registered General Nursing (RGN) and Midwifery students. The final finding was that there was a significant difference in reported test anxiety levels among students from the various schools with those from private institutions reporting significantly higher levels. It was recommended that the various HAC schools should organised training programmes for students on how to prepare and take exams and tests successfully.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

  • School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana

  • Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

  • Institute of Continuing & Distance Education, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

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