Fear of COVID-19 and Coping Strategies of Nursing Students During Clinical Education about Surgical Nursing

Abstract

Background: Nursing students have experienced psychological problems like fear, anxiety, and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, nursing students’ coping strategies and the effectiveness of these strategies during the pandemic are unclear. 
 Methods: The study has a descriptive and cross-sectional design. The sample included 150 surgical nursing students in Turkey in the spring term of the 2020-2021 academic year. Data were collected with a sociodemographic features form, The Fear of COVID-19 Scale and The Coping with the Outbreak Scale. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to determine the factors having a relation with the fear of COVID-19. 
 Results: The mean score on the Fear of COVID-19 Scale was 19.13±5.09 (Table 3). The fear of COVID-19 had a significant relation with death anxiety (p=0.003) and the feeling of guilt (p=0.032). The mean score on the Coping with the Outbreak Scale was 46.56±12.03 and the mean scores on cognitive coping, transcendental coping and behavioral coping were 9.64±3.47, 9.36±3.50 and 12.18±4.75 respectively. The mean score on coping with COVID-19 had a significant relation with the type of the high school the students graduated from (p=0.025), anxiety about failure to find a job (p=0.0001), death anxiety (p=0.014) and anger (p=0.048).
 Conclusions: The students had a moderate level of fear of COVID-19 during the pandemic. They experienced the feelings of fear, guilt, anger, and burnout. They were also anxious about failure to find a job and dying. They had a moderate level of coping with the pandemic