Promoting supportive strategies to enable nursing students to manage anxiety during their training

Background: Anxiety is highly prevalent among nursing students, even in normal circumstances. This is because of the demanding academic workload, which includes both theoretical and work-integrated learning, as well as caring for ill patients and working shifts. Nursing students experience anxiety as a result of different factors and employ various coping mechanisms to manage their responses. Objective: To develop and validate supportive strategies that will enable nursing students to manage their anxiety during training. Method: A qualitative descriptive phenomenological design was employed. This approach enabled the researcher to explore and describe the lived experiences of nursing students and the perspectives of nurse educators regarding students’ anxieties. The study was conducted in two phases. In phase 1, an empirical study was conducted through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions; data were analysed using a phenomenological method. In phase 2, supportive strategies for managing students’ anxiety during training were developed and validated using the World Health Organization’s (2018) guidelines. Results: The integrated results from phase 1 are presented as a summary of findings. Both groups revealed a limited understanding of anxiety-related conditions. New students are not assessed for mental health, and supportive resources are lacking. Conclusion: Supportive strategies are essential to enable nursing students to manage their anxiety in an attempt to promote mental well-being during training. Contribution: Developed and validated supportive strategies to manage anxiety during training, which were paramount to increasing retention rate, promoting academic success and mental well-being of nursing students.