ORIGINAL PAPER. The Effect of Touching for Level of Anxiety and Skills to Advanced Practice of Nursing Students.

Aim: The anxiety of nursing students about the administration of intramuscular injection reduced nursing skill performance. The research was conducted in order to evaluate the effect of touching among the students who performed the administration of intramuscular injection on a model for the first time upon the level of anxiety and success. Design: Single blind experimental study. Methods: The study was conducted with the first year nursing students (n=49). The students whose school numbers were even number were assigned to the intervention group (n=24) whereas the students whose school numbers were odd numbers were assigned to the control group (n=25). The shoulders of the students in the intervention group who administered injection were touched for averagely 3-5 minutes while the students in the control group were not done anything. The data of the research were collected using a personal information form, guide for intramuscular injection administration skills and state-trait anxiety inventory. The necessary official permissions for the research and informed consents of the students were obtained. The data were evaluated using Wilcoxon, Kruskal-Wallis and Man-Whitney U test. Results: The level of anxiety of the students who were touched was significantly lower than that of control group. The level of stress had a dealing tendency and the nursing skill performance level was significantly higher than that of control group. Conclusions: Touching suggested as an effective nursing intervention did reduce the anxiety and promoted nursing skill performance of nursing students. Touching may be used by the academic personnel so that nursing students can get psycho-motor skills during the intramuscular injection administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]