Investigation of the Effect of Emotional Freedom Technique on Stress and Anxiety in Nursing Students in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID19 pandemic has caused nursing students studying in the clinical field to stay away from the clinic for a long time due to the interruption of education. This process affected the anxiety levels of nursing students, causing them to feel inadequate and experience stress. This study aims to investigate the effect of the emotional freedom technique on nursing students' styles of coping with anxiety and stress. In the experimentally designed study with a pretest-posttest control group, the emotional freedom technique was applied to the experimental group in 4 sessions. In addition, the state anxiety scale, coping styles scale, subjective discomfort level scale was applied during the pre-application phase and after the emotional freedom technique session. As a result, it was determined that the students in the experimental group had higher mean scores of coping with stress inventory, seeking social support, optimism, self-confidence, and submissive approach measurement scores in the post-test, and state anxiety scale measurement scores measured in the post-test. Therefore, alternative approaches such as the emotional freedom technique that nursing students can apply to reduce their anxiety levels and increase their coping with stress should be encouraged.