Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global disaster, and recent studies have shown its association with increasing mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and stress. Nursing students, especially nursing interns, may be shunned, harassed, and even blamed as potential COVID-19 spreaders, though they were an important reserve force against COVID-19 and other diseases. Of note, the psychological influences of COVID-19 on nursing students remained unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mental health of nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted on nursing students in a vocational college from April 12 to 23, 2020. The Impact of Event Scale–Revised, 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to assess the degree of symptoms of PTSD, depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the potential risk factors for the psychological symptoms. A total of 1,780 college nursing students were asked to participate in this online survey, with 1,532 complete responses. In total, 682 (44.5%) college nursing students reported having PTSD, 358 (22.8%) students reported insomnia, and few students reported depression (n = 45, 2.9%), anxiety (n = 44, 2.9%), and stress (n = 17, 1.1%) symptoms. As compared with junior, female, and rural nursing students, the senior, male, and urban nursing students had higher rates of PTSD, depression, anxiety, stress, respectively, whereas male nursing students had a higher insomnia rate. Multivariable analysis showed that senior nursing students had higher risks of PTSD, depression, anxiety; being male was associated with higher risks of PTSD, depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia; and urban nursing students had higher risks of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and stress. In summary, a considerable number of nursing students reported mental symptoms of PTSD and insomnia, though few reported mental symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, senior, male, and urban nursing students are at risk for developing mental symptoms. Appropriate psychological interventions should be implemented to assure the mental health of nursing students.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified in Wuhan, China on December 8, 2019, and it has rapidly spread all over the world (Pan et al, 2020)
As compared with female nursing students, male nursing students had higher risks of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (OR = 1.631; 95% CI, 1.192–2.233; P = 0.002), depression (OR = 2.676; 95% CI, 1.318–5.431; P = 0.006), anxiety (OR = 3.144; 95% CI, 1.572–6.286; P = 0.001), stress (OR = 3.352; 95% CI, 1.158–9.702; P = 0.026), and insomnia
As compared with rural nursing students, urban nursing students had higher risks of PTSD (OR = 1.362; 95% CI, 1.110–1.672; P = 0.003), depression (OR = 2.091; 95% CI, 1.129–3.874; P = 0.019), anxiety (OR = 2.010; 95% CI, 1.079–3.743; P = 0.028), and stress (OR = 3.031; 95% CI, 1.057–8.693; P = 0.039)
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified in Wuhan, China on December 8, 2019, and it has rapidly spread all over the world (Pan et al, 2020). This pandemic has been a global disaster, greatly influencing social lives, economics, mental conditions, and health security, and it seemed that there was no end to this disaster (Firth et al, 2020; Pfefferbaum and North, 2020). In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, Chinese students had experienced prolonged school suspensions and subsequent online education at home
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