| The purpose of this longitudinal, repeated measures quasi-experimental study was to test selected elements of Scholtz's Theory of Reframing Threat Apperception (STRTA). The effects of an expressive self-regulation writing task as compared to an expressive disclosure writing task, a trivia writing task, and a control/no writing task group prior to the clinical education experience on reframing threat apperception were examined.; The convenience sample consisted of 161 baccalaureate generic nursing students from 5 colleges in northeastern Pennsylvania. Participants for this study were enrolled in a nursing course with a clinical component. Participants were assigned to one of four groups, the self-disclosure writing, self-regulation writing, trivia writing group, or the control/no writing group. Participants were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire and Pagana's Clinical Stress Questionnaire (PCSQ), a measure of threat apperception, prior to the first clinical experience in the course. Cronbach's alpha-reliability for the PCSQ for the Threat, Challenge, and Benefit subscales were .84, .85, and .81 respectively. Cronbach's alpha-reliability for the Harm subscale was .55. During weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5 students in the three treatment groups completed their assigned writing tasks. Upon completion of the final writing task in week 5, all four groups completed the PCSQ. Pagana Clinical Stress Questionnaire was also given to all students at the completion of the course. Participants who did not complete a minimum of two writing tasks were relabeled the non-compliant group for data analysis.; The hypothesis was that threat apperception in generic baccalaureate nursing students who completed an expressive self-regulation writing task prior to the clinical education experience would differ, at two points in time, from students who complete an expressive disclosure writing task, a trivia writing task, or no writing task prior to the clinical education experience. Results of the RANOVA showed the self-regulation writing group did not differ significantly in threat apperception from all other groups and the hypothesis was not supported. However, additional analyses indicated the self-regulation group experienced a significant (p < .05) decrease in the Threat subscale mean scores that were sustained throughout the course of the study. The self-regulation writing group also had an increase in the Challenge subscale mean scores yielding a significant increase at the completion of the study. The self-regulation writing group was the only group that had a statistically significant (p < .05) increase in benefit scores at posttest 1, but no significant change in scores at the end of the study period. This may have been the result of a small sample size and a Power of .72.; The findings of this study suggest that there is a trend in the data that supports the basic suppositions of Scholtz's Theory of Reframing Threat Apperception and challenges the original assumption that nursing students perceive clinical education as threatening. A recommendation based upon the findings of this study includes replication of the study using oversampling to obtain the projected sample size for greater statistical power. The Harm subscale of the PCSQ needs to be strengthened or deleted. Theory development and refinement of STRTA is also recommended. |
