Treating Test Anxiety with Diffused Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is a form of complementary / alternative medicine (CAM) that uses aromatic plant oils, called essential oils, for the purpose of altering one's cognitive, psychological or physical wellbeing. Nursing programs educate adult students to the professional nursing role. Student nurses experience stressful learning environments related to advances in technology, patient demographics, national patient safety standards and high expectations in the clinical and classroom settings. One of the barriers to nursing student success is test anxiety, which potentially reduces student retention and graduation rates. Educators need to research and offer anxiety-relieving strategies to students to foster student success. It is imperative for educators to provide innovative strategies to maximize student performance and graduation rates