Effects of Aroma Inhalation on Blood Pressure, Pulse, Visual Analog Scale, and McNair Scale in Nursing Students Practicing Intravenous Injection at the First Time

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of aromatherapy on an anxiety of nursing students at the first time practice about intravenous injection. To learn intravenous injection skill is one of the most stressful situations for the nursing students. We expected that aromatherapy used as nursing intervention will be helpful to decrease their anxiety. Method: Subjects of this study were fifty-five nursing students who attended in fundamental of nursing class. The experiment and data collection were conducted on May 25, 2010. Anxiety was measured by five variables, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse, McNair's tension-anxiety scale, and VAS for anxiety. Treatment of this study was aroma lamp inhalation using lavender, chamomile, and sweet-orange essential oil. Data were analyzed using PASW. Results: There were significant differences in pulse between experimental and control groups just before practice. And degree of increase in systolic blood pressure and pulse rate were significantly low in the experimental group. Conclusions: Aroma lamp inhalation, an easy to use intervention was useful to decrease anxiety in practice of intravenous injection.