Effectiveness of Music Therapy and Emotional Freedom Technique on Test Anxiety in Turkish Nursing Students: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Citation: Demet Inangil, Pinar Irmak Vural, Sibel Dogan, Gulsah Korpe (2019) Effectiveness of Music Therapy and Emotional Freedom Technique on Test Anxiety in Turkish Nursing Students: A Randomised Controlled Trial European Journal of Integrative Medicine Vol 32 December 2019 Vol 33, 101041

Highlights

The study compared the effects of EFT and music therapy on nursing students taking clinical exams in Turkey. 90 students were randomly assigned to one of three groups (MUSIC,EFT,CONTROL). The study aimed to assess the effects of music, EFT and no intervention on situational anxiety and physiological measures. The study showed that both music and EFT had reduced the situational anxiety significantly (p < .05). The changes in mean vital signs were not universally significant, although there were some shifts.

EFTi Editor’s notes:

Assessment tools used: Student Identification Form, the Situational Anxiety Scale, and the Vital Signs Form.

From the abstract below it was not possible to access the hard data on the study. The abstract implies the reduction in anxiety scores was identical for both EFT and Music. It also implies that the Control group did not differ significantly on some physiological metrics. It was not possible to verify this further without access to the full paper. No detail as to how the environments for each group were controlled were included in the abstract, so it is not possible to rule out other influencing variables in these results.

Link to study at Science Direct

Full Study Not available without payment. Here’s the text we can access:

Abstract

Introduction

Test anxiety, one of the forms of situational anxiety, is a crucial biopsychological factor negatively affecting the wellbeing and academic performance of students throughout their education. The study aimed to determine the effects of music therapy and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) on situational anxiety and vital signs in nursing students before they took an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Exam).

Methods

This study was conducted with 90 volunteer students. A computer-based random number generator was used to randomly assign the students into three groups (Music, EFT, and control), each group consisted of 30 students. Data was collected using a Student Identification Form, the Situational Anxiety Scale, and the Vital Signs Form.

Results

Before the interventions, the mean anxiety scores of the students were similar. After the interventions, however, the mean anxiety scores of those in both experimental groups were significantly lower (p < .05). The difference between the mean vital signs of the groups was not statistically significant, except the pulse rate in the EFT and peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2) in the music group.

Conclusions

According to the results of the study, both music therapy and EFT led to a decrease in the nursing students’ average scores before the OSCE, as measured by the Situational Anxiety Scale.

Link to study at Science Direct