Anxiety, mental illness, learning disabilities, and learning accommodation use: A cross-sectional study

Nurse educators require a robust understanding of nursing students' attributes to meet their learning needs and support their success. This research seeks to understand the proportion of nursing students with self-reported medically diagnosed anxiety, mental illnesses (MI), learning disabilities (LD), and utilized learning accommodations (LA), and determine how these students compared to a normative sample regarding studying and test-taking anxiety. A secondary analysis of quantitative cross-sectional data that included the Academic Success Inventory for College Students (ASICS) tool. First-year students were surveyed (4–6 weeks after program start, and students in years 1 through 4 were surveyed at the end of both academic terms. At program start, 21% were diagnosed with anxiety, 16% with MI, 2% with a LD, and 6% accessed LA. By fourth-year these proportions were 23%, 22%, 8% and 13% respectively. Alarming proportions of respondents exhibited anxiety related to test-taking compared to the ASICS normative sample with large effect sizes (Anxiety h = 0.884; MI h = 0.601; LD: h = 2.094; LA h = 0.725). To support students, we highlight a need for early identification and tailored support, enriched faculty knowledge, faculty introspection and willingness to adapt, and time for relational and individual pedagogy. •At program entry, 21% of nursing students disclosed a diagnosis of anxiety and 16% a mental illness.•At program entry, 2% disclosed a learning disability, and 6% accessed learning accommodations.•These proportions were greater by the fourth year of study.•Compared to others, alarming proportions of these students exhibited test-taking anxiety.