EFT and First Clinical Experience Anxiety for Nursing Student

Clinical experience has been defined by nursing students as one of the most anxiety-inducing components of nursing education. Lack of clinical experience, unfamiliar areas, difficult patients, fear of making mistakes, fear of being evaluated by instructors, and communication issues with hospital staff have been identified by students as situations that cause anxiety during their clinical experiences. Clinical learning experience is a complementary and essential part of nursing education because it enables nursing students to acquire the necessary professional knowledge and skills. It also develops psychomotor skills, which form the foundation for the roles that foster their socialization. This situation can negatively affect the student's clinical performance. Therefore, reducing anxiety and stress levels before the first clinical experience is crucial at every stage of the clinical learning experience . When reviewing studies aimed at reducing nursing students' anxiety before their first clinical experience, methods such as clinical orientation training, pre-clinical simulation, and laboratory training, as well as the use of technology such as artificial intelligence and mobile applications, have been observed.

Gary Craig, an American engineer, developed EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) inspired by Roger Callahan's Thought Field Therapy (TFT) . In 1980, Callahan conducted a study on a patient who had a fear of water, causing headaches and nightmares. By tapping on the point below the eyes, which corresponds to the stomach meridian, he discovered that the fear of water was eliminated along with the emotional intensity and fear. He named this approach "Thought Field Therapy" (TFT) . Later, in 1991, Craig conducted research on TFT and, after five years of study, developed a single EFT method that encompasses all conditions .

EFT, an acronym for "Emotional Freedom Techniques," is a psychophysiological intervention that combines somatic stimulation elements using cognitive-behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, and acupuncture points. EFT is an acupressure method designed to improve psychological conditions such as anger, sadness, and anxiety by applying pressure to the meridian points of the organs responsible for these emotions . This method combines traditional psychotherapy with the stimulation of Eastern meridian and acupuncture points, based on the principle of ensuring the smooth flow of energy . EFT is an intervention where a person focuses their physical or psychological awareness on a particular issue while simultaneously tapping on selected acupuncture points, especially on the head and upper torso, with their fingertips . The purpose of this tapping is to create a frequency between the physical body and the energy body, aiming to address the original event that caused the negative emotional state. To achieve full well-being, it is essential to eliminate the energy imbalances caused by the original event that led to the illness .

EFT can be safely used for individuals of all age groups, including children, pregnant women, and the elderly. It can be applied to children for issues like fear, exam stress, nighttime bedwetting, learning difficulties, school anxiety, and eating disorders . In medical conditions, it is used for problems like headaches, physical pain, sleep disorders, constipation, hypertension, respiratory issues, menstrual problems, pregnancy-related nausea, migraines, seizures, and chronic disease symptoms. When using the EFT technique, the Subjective Units of Experience (SUE) scale is used to determine how significant the emotional issue or problem is for the individual. On a scale from -10 to +10, -10 represents the worst possible pain, frustration, fear, stress, sadness, or discomfort (very bad/negative), while +10 represents the highest level of joy, happiness, or feeling great (positive/healing). The tapping used during EFT, also known as Emotional Freedom Technique, is applied to stimulate acupuncture points .

Since EFT is known to reduce anxiety and stress caused by factors such as fear and phobias, it is expected that applying EFT to nursing students about to experience their first clinical experience will reduce their anxiety levels. Based on this hypothesis, this study aims to evaluate the effect of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) on the anxiety levels of nursing students before their first clinical experience through a randomized controlled trial.