Little is known about the experiences of nursing students during the pandemic process. This research was conducted to determine the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic process. This qualitative study was conducted with 47 first-year nursing students of a faculty that experienced the COVID-19 pandemic between 3–30 April 2020. Student nurses stated that they felt fear and anxiety; they liked this situation in the beginning due to the constraints during the pandemic process, but due to the prolongation of this process, they experienced boredom due to monotonous extraordinary days of doing the same things every day and realized that every moment before the pandemic was very valuable. In addition, the students stated that rich and poor are equal in the face of the virus and that all humanity has learned solidarity by leaving wars, fights, and superiority efforts. In this process, it was found that nursing students have negative coping methods, such as not being able to manage time well due to constraints at home and spending too much time on the phone, internet, and computer. In this context, empowering nursing students to cope with challenging emotions and thoughts starting from their educational life will contribute to the development of both students and the profession.

This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the correlation between the coping styles and depression, anxiety, and stress levels of individuals living in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted using an online questionnaire (Socio-demographic Form; Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21; Coping Styles Scale) and it included 483 individuals. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Independent Samples t-test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Hosmer-Lemeshow and Scheffe tests, Pearson Correlation, and Binary Logistic Regression analyzes were used to analyze the data. There was a negative correlation between the participants’ self-confident and optimistic coping styles mean scores and their depression, anxiety, and stress mean scores. There was a positive correlation between the participants’ helpless, submissive, and seeking social support coping styles mean scores and their depression, anxiety, and stress mean scores. The regression analysis revealed that using the helpless coping style increased the depression, anxiety, and stress levels of the participants while using the optimistic coping style and visiting a physician during the pandemic decreased them. In addition, seeking social support coping style increased the level of depression while the testing during the pandemic increased stress levels. As a result, it is recommended to strengthen society’s psychological resilience and expand mental health support services for such mental illnesses.