COVID- 19 pandemic: Nursing students' knowledge and anxiety in clinical practice at the medical department

Abstract

Background: The level of knowledge and worry among people involved in patient care is controversial when an infectious disease spread. Clinical procedures caused stress and anxiety in nursing students throughout the epidemic. This study explores the levels of knowledge and anxiety of Saudi nursing students in clinical training at the medical departments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A descriptive, web-based-cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2021 to April 2022 and was planned to examine 185 nursing students at nursing college Qassim university. The survey collected data on sociodemographic data knowledge of COVID-19 and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale (GAD-7) was used to assess anxiety. Result: The results displayed that the majority of nursing students in the clinical practice (65.4%) were a high level of knowledge, 20 % did not report any anxiety at all, more than one-third experienced 39.5% moderate anxiety and less than a third experience 30. 3% mild anxiety, and 10.3% experience severe anxiety towards the COVID-19 pandemic in clinical practice. There is a negative significant correlation between knowledge level and anxiety score ((r=-–0.189, p = 0.010)).