Test Anxiety and Academic Burnout Among Nursing Students at the College of Nursing, Kogi State

Nursing education in Nigeria combines rigorous academic demands with early clinical exposure, creating conditions that place students at elevated risk for test anxiety and academic burnout. At the College of Nursing, Kogi State, in North Central Nigeria, the psychological well-being of nursing students has not been systematically assessed. This study examines test anxiety and academic burnout among nursing students, exploring their co-occurrence and relationship with academic performance and self-efficacy. A descriptive cross-sectional survey is applied to 200 students from years one to three of the nursing programme, recruited through census sampling. The Westside Test Anxiety Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey are administered alongside a questionnaire capturing year of study, clinical placement frequency, and academic self-efficacy ratings. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression are computed in SPSS. Available literature from Nigerian nursing education identifies skill evaluation anxiety, fear of clinical errors, and examination pressure as compounding sources of burnout, with first- and final-year students most affected. Burnout Theory by Maslach and Leiter and the Cognitive Appraisal Model of anxiety provide the theoretical framework. Findings will inform the College of Nursing's student support and academic counselling service development in Kogi State. Keywords: test anxiety, academic burnout, nursing students, College of Nursing, Kogi State.