Analyzing the Mental Health and Resilience of Undergraduate Nursing Students During the COVID-19 Outbreak
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The study of risk, resilience, and mental health is timely and important to nursing education because today’s nursing students are experiencing a global pandemic, with the rapid outbreak of COVID-19. This novel crisis and circumstances require research that documents how pre-service healthcare professionals are reacting and coping to the current global pandemic. This need is evident because COVID-19 has uniquely positioned nurses as first responders who often must risk their lives in order to provide patient care. This transformational role and experience will likely have a profound effect on the profession and those entering the profession. The purpose of this descriptive-exploratory study is to understand the relationship of risk (e.g., anxiety, stress, and COVID-19 Induced Risk Factors) resilience, and mental health factors among undergraduate nursing students in response to COVID-19. The sample population for this study is undergraduate nursing students enrolled in the upper division of a four-year BSN program at a large, public institution in the Southeastern United States. This study is designed as a descriptive-exploratory study to describe and explore the immediate reactions of nursing students to the COVID-19 Pandemic - a crisis that profoundly affects nurses and other healthcare professionals. Data was collected in the Spring Semester of 2020 using an online Qualtrics Survey emailed to participants via a student email list-serv with prior approval and after IRB approval was obtained. Students answered one survey with six instruments that were self-report measures for resilience, grit, stress, coping, depression, and anxiety. Students also answered demographic questions that addressed life events and environment changes due to COVID-19. Since many of today’s nursing pre-service professionals will enter the workforce while the current global crisis is on-going, research is needed that highlights the social, psychological, and instrumental supports that may protect the profession from undesirable attrition.