Objetivo: Determinar la prevalencia del malestar psicológico y su relación con el engagement académico (absorción, dedicación y vigor) y con variables sexo y titulación, de los estudiantes de cuatro universidades públicas. Método: Estudio comparativo correlacional, investigación cuantitativa sin intervención, no experimental. Población 1840 estudiantes de Enfermería y Fisioterapia. La herramienta de recogida de datos fue el cuestionario. Resultados: Prevalencia de malestar psicológico en el 32.2% de los sujetos; se hallaron correlaciones entre vigor y malestar psicológico para el conjunto de sujetos y para el grupo de las mujeres. Las puntuaciones altas en absorción y dedicación y bajas en malestar psicológico, predicen valoraciones más altas en vigor. Conclusión: El riesgo de malestar psicológi-co es alto, especialmente para las mujeres. Éstas se perciben con mayor malestar psicológico que los hombres. El vigor, energía y resistencia con los estudios, influye positivamente sobre el malestar psicológico y puede ser un vehículo para unos mejores resultados del aprendizaje. AbStRActObjective: To determine the prevalence of psychological distress and its relationship with academic engagement (absorption, dedication and vigor), sex and degree among students from four public universities. Method: A non-experimental, comparative correlational, quantitative investigation without intervention. Study population: 1840 nursing and physical therapy students. The data collection tool used was a questionnaire. Results: A 32.2% prevalence of psychological distress was found in the subjects; a correlation between vigor and psychological distress was found for all of the subjects and also for women. High absorption and dedication scores and low psychological distress scores predicted higher vigor scores. Conclusion: The risk of psychological distress is high, especially for women. Women seem to have a higher level of psychological distress than men. Vigor, energy and mental resilience positively influence psychological distress and can be a vehicle for better results during the learning and studying process.

Psychophysiological stress can affect the cognitive response and effective learning of students during medical simulation practices. This study aimed to explore the effect of psychophysiological stress and socio-emotional competencies on clinical performance during a simulation experience. A pre-test/post-test design was used to assess physiological (blood pressure, heart rate and blood oxygen saturation) and psychological parameters (stress and anxiety) as well as socio-emotional skills (cognitive load, self-efficacy and motivation) in nursing students (n = 40) before and after the simulation of a cardiopulmonary resuscitation practice. Physiological responses showed statistically significant differences between pre-test and post-test conditions for blood pressure and heart rate (p < 0.0001). Moderate and significant correlations were also observed when comparing self-efficacy with stress (r = −0.445, p = 0.004), anxiety (r = −0.467, p = 0.002) and motivation (r = −0.406, p = 0.009) measures. Similarly, cognitive-load dimensions were significantly associated with either physiological (r = −0.335, p = 0.034) or psychological (r = −0.448, p = 0.004) indicators. The analysis of multiple regression models revealed a relationship between the effectiveness of the simulated experience, post-test blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, workload and self-efficacy (R2 = 0.490; F (3, 39) = 8.305; p < 0.0001; d = 1.663). Therefore, the evaluation of psychophysiological parameters and socio-emotional skills seems to provide a promising framework for predicting the quality of simulated clinical practices.

Background: The guarantee of nursing competence in prehospital urgent care requires the identification and delimitation of the specific competencies. This work describes the importance attributed by professors of Spanish universities to the competencies of prehospital nursing positions and indicates the most appropriate training level required to achieve them. Method: The current work consisted of a survey with an online questionnaire. Sixty competencies over 10 domains were studied. Results: The most valued domains were those of general and personal competencies. The competencies considered most important were “Recognizes the vital risk and knows how to perform basic and advanced life support maneuvers” and “Provides quality health care.” The nursing degree is considered appropriate to train students to the required level in only eight competencies. Conclusion: The proposed competencies can be considered as specific competencies necessary in prehospital emergency nursing. Effective performance requires training to a higher level than a nursing degree. [ J Contin Educ Nurs. 2020;51(12):556–567.]

Los universitarios se encuentran sometidos a cargas académicas prolongadas que ocuparan la mayor parte de su tiempo. La capacidad para hacer frente a estas situaciones de estrés durante su formación, dependerá ente otras cosas, de la disposición personal para afrontar las demandas académicas.Objetivo: Describir el nivel de burnout (agotamiento, cinismo y eficacia académica) y el compromiso académico a través de la variable engagement (absorción, dedicación y vigor), además de analizar las asociaciones, relaciones y predicciones entre estas variables en estudiantes de Enfermería. Material y método. Estudio descriptivo transversal en 1009 sujetos. Instrumentos de recogida de datos: Maslach Burnout Inventory y Utrech Work Engagement en versión estudiantes. Resultados: Las dimensiones del burnout y engagement correlacionan entre sí. A mayor eficacia académica menos agotamiento y cinismo y mayor puntuación en todas las dimensiones del engagement académico. El vigor y la dedicación predicen puntuaciones más altas en eficacia académica. Las mujeres se perciben con puntuaciones más bajas en cinismo y más altas en eficacia académica, absorción y dedicación. Conclusiones: Los alumnos muestran más burnout cuando manifiestan altas puntuaciones de agotamiento y cinismo y bajas en eficacia académica, además valores altos en las tres dimensiones del engagement indican alto compromiso con sus estudios. La relación entre estas variables pone de manifiesto la diferencia entre hombres y mujeres y la influencia positiva del engagement en la eficacia académica del estudiante. El fomento de engagement puede ser una oportunidad para superar las tareas académicas y para enfrentarse al mundo laboral con mayor probabilidad de éxito. University students are tasked with a protracted academic workload that occupies the greater part of their time. Their ability to cope with the stress this entails during their degree course will partly depend on their personal response to these academic demands.Objective: to describe nursing students’ level of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism and academic efficacy) and academic engagement through the variable engagement (absorption, dedication and vigour), and to analyse associations, relations and predictions between these variables. Materials and method: cross-sectional descriptive study with 1009 subjects. Data collection instruments: student versions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Results: the dimensions of burnout and engagement correlated with each other. The higher the score for academic efficacy, the lower the scores for exhaustion and cynicism and the higher the score in all dimensions of academic engagement. Vigour and dedication predicted higher scores for academic efficacy. Females’ self-perceptions indicated lower scores for cynicism and higher scores for academic efficacy, absorption and dedication. Conclusions: students evidenced more burnout when they obtained high scores for exhaustion and cynicism and low scores for academic efficacy. In addition, high scores for the three dimensions of engagement indicated high commitment to their studies. The relationship between these variables indicates a difference between males and females and a positive influence of engagement on students’ academic efficacy. Promoting engagement could help students to deal with academic tasks and enter the labour market with a greater probability of success.

The aims: (i) analyze connectivity between subgroups of university students, (ii) assess which bridges of relational contacts are essential for connecting or disconnecting subgroups and (iii) to explore the similarities between the attributes of the subgroup nodes in relation to the pandemic context. During the COVID-19 pandemic, young university students have experienced significant changes in their relationships, especially in the halls of residence. Previous research has shown the importance of relationship structure in contagion processes. However, there is a lack of studies in the university setting, where students live closely together. The case study methodology was applied to carry out a descriptive study. The participation consisted of 43 university students living in the same hall of residence. Social network analysis has been applied for data analysis. Factions and Girvan–Newman algorithms have been applied to detect the existing cohesive subgroups. The UCINET tool was used for the calculation of the SNA measure. A visualization of the global network will be carried out using Gephi software. After applying the Girvan–Newman and Factions, in both cases it was found that the best division into subgroups was the one that divided the network into 4 subgroups. There is high degree of cohesion within the subgroups and a low cohesion between them. The relationship between subgroup membership and gender was significant. The degree of COVID-19 infection is related to the degree of clustering between the students. College students form subgroups in their residence. Social network analysis facilitates an understanding of structural behavior during the pandemic. The study provides evidence on the importance of gender, race and the building where they live in creating network structures that favor, or not, contagion during a pandemic.