Abstract

The purpose of this study was to invesigate the effect of aromatherapy of the anxiety and stress response of nursing students who were undergoing the first clinical practice. A non-equivalent pretest-posttest design was used. The study subjects were conveniently selected 46 nursing students and they were assigned into experimental and control group. The aromatherapy was given to the experimental group for five consecutive days while the control group took rest only. Baseline data including pre-treatment anxiety and stress response scores were obtained on the night before the first clinical practice. Post-treatment anxiety and stress response scores were measured on the fifth day of clinical practice.
Results
are as follow : 1. The anxienty score of experimental group was significantly lower than that of control group. 2. The total stress response score of experimental group was significantly lower than that of control group. 3. Among 10 subscales of SOS scale, 3(depression, anxiety/fear, emotional irritability) subscales related to emotional or psychological stress response showed significant differences between expeimental and control group following aromatherapy. The above results indicate that aromatherapy using selected essential oils to be an effective intervention for relieving anxiety and stress response of nursing students experiencing the first clinical practice.

• Keywords: Aromatherapy, Anxiety, Stress;