Perceptions of satisfaction with clinical mentors’ competencies and their association with nursing students’ anxiety during clinical placements

Clinical placements are an essential component of undergraduate nursing education; however, they are frequently associated with elevated anxiety among nursing students. Although clinical mentors play a fundamental role in supporting students’ learning, professional development, and adaptation to clinical environments, limited quantitative evidence has examined the association between students’ perceptions of mentor competence and anxiety experienced during clinical placements. An observational, analytical and cross-sectional study. The study included 184 third and fourth year nursing students from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. The data collected included sociodemographic data, characteristics of the internship, anxiety (GAD-7), and perception of satisfaction with the mentors’ competencies (MENTOR-NURSE). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to identify predictors of anxiety, and to report odds ratios (OR), adjusted OR (aOR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Overall, 52.2% ( n = 96) of students reported anxiety symptoms, and 20.1% ( n = 37) had moderate to severe anxiety. Higher satisfaction with perceived mentor competence was associated with lower odds of anxiety. In multivariate analysis, rating mentorship as “excellent” predicted lower anxiety (aOR = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.10–0.63; p = 0.003) and lower odds of moderate to severe anxiety (aOR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.06–0.59; p = 0.004), compared with “unsatisfactory” ratings. Student nurses who reported greater satisfaction with their clinical mentors’ competencies were less likely to experience anxiety during clinical placements. Although causal inferences cannot be drawn from this cross-sectional study, these findings suggest that high-quality clinical mentoring may be an important component of supportive clinical learning environments. Further longitudinal and intervention studies are required before definitive recommendations regarding structured mentoring programs can be made.