Date of Award
Summer 2026
Document Type
Project – Full Written
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Committee Chair
Tina Lewis
Abstract
Nursing education is inherently rigorous, with students frequently subjected to high-stakes clinical assessments, simulations, and academic evaluations. Stress and test anxiety can impact learning, which can result in students’ inability to progress in nursing programs. This DNP project aimed to evaluate the effects of aromatherapy with lavender essential oil and meditation on the stress and test anxiety scores in associate degree nursing students through assessing the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Westside Test Anxiety Scale (WSTA) scores. Participants engaged in educational and interventional sessions that utilized aromatherapy and meditation. Surveys were deployed to gather baseline PSS and WSTA scores and post-interventional sessions. The DNP project found participants’ mean PSS and WSTA scores trended downward after all interventional sessions. The largest difference in PSS and WSTA mean scores was found between the initial pre-test survey to the final intervention session’s post-test survey. This DNP project has shown that stress and test anxiety scores decreased in prelicensure nursing students through the implementation of aromatherapy and meditation. Aromatherapy and meditation require minimal training, costs, and time to implement. Due to this, aromatherapy and meditation should be considered for use in nursing education to promote stress and test anxiety reduction.
Recommended Citation
Doig, Valerie A., "Breathing Calm Into Testing: The Impact of Mindfulness Meditation and Aromatherapy on Stress and Test Anxiety of Prelicensure Nursing Students" (2026). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 178.
https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/nursing-dnp/178
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License