A systematic review of the nursing students' quality of life and related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The goal of the current systematic review was to learn more about nursing students' quality of life (QoL) and associated determinants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Systematic search was done from the earliest date to August 27, 2022 using keywords extracted from Medical Subject Headings including "Quality of life", "Nursing students", and "COVID-19" in international electronic databases including Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science. Iranian databases such as Iranmedex were also searched. Utilizing the cross-sectional study appraisal tool (AXIS tool), the quality of the studies included in this review was assessed. This systematic review comprised eight cross-sectional studies with a combined total of 5,939 nursing students. The findings of the eight research that made up this systematic review revealed that nursing students had a moderate level of QoL during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the findings of the research included in this study were conflicting, which may be related to the impact of factors such as age, gender, anxiety, residential area, presence of COVID-19 cases near their residence, the care of COVID-19 patients, nursing-related experience, coping behavior, the feeling of loneliness, general point average, program classification, source of knowledge, trust in the government’s handling of the pandemic, years in nursing school, subjective happiness, resilience, anxiety, depression, academic stress, the problem with internet use. Therefore, managers and policymakers in the field of nursing should plan and implement appropriate measures to moderate the negative influencing factors on the QoL among nursing students, taking into account the importance of the QoL of nursing students as people present in the health care service system and their presence at the patient's bedside.