Longitudinal Study of the Mental Health, Resilience, and Post-Traumatic Stress of Senior Nursing Students to Nursing Graduates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study analyzed changes in the psychological health of students who were in the final year of their nursing degree during the COVID-19 pandemic and later served as nursing professionals in hospitals. Methods: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted over two periods of time (the first in April 2020 and the second 6 months later, in December 2020) with 296 students for a T0 baseline (rate response 68.83%) and 92 students for a T1 post-test sample (response rate 31.08%). The data were electronically collected using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Resilience Scale, and a post-traumatic stress questionnaire. The mean age of the sample participants was 24.17 years (SD = 5.51), and 89.11% were female. During the pandemic, 14.11% of students showed scores that indicated depression, and 32.61% showed scores that indicated anxiety. In December 2020, 86.5% of the participants were working as nurses, and the percentages of those with anxiety (12%) and depression (4.3%) were significantly lower than in the first sample period. A total of 20.7% of the participants had post-traumatic stress. High scores for resilience were significantly associated with better quality of life and lower levels of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. Conclusions: Although the percentages of participants with anxiety and depression decreased, they still presented with mental health problems.

Anxiety Levels and Coping Strategies to Deal with COVID-19: A Cross-Cultural Study among the Spanish and Latin American Healthcare Populations

“…In contrast, our results show that women present higher levels of anxiety regarding COVID-19 than men among health professionals, and we found significant differences based on gender. Our results are consistent with those of [ 2 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 20 , 36 , 59 , 69 ], given that female health professionals present greater anxiety regarding COVID-19 compared to male health professionals. This could be due to the caregiver role that women play in their homes, thus resulting in greater anxiety due to the fear of contagion.…”

“…This seems to indicate that health professionals tried to protect their psychological health, and therefore their levels of anxiety, in the face of such an unprecedented threat in our recent history. These results support other studies that revealed that positive mental health and social, emotional, and psychological well-being have a positive effect, confer resilience, reduce the negative consequences of unpleasant experiences, promote an adaptive response to uncertain situations, and reduce the risk of suicidal ideation [ 13 , 14 , 24 , 25 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 34 , 36 , 40 , 45 , 49 , 53 , 54 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 ].…”

“…Additionally, health professionals have been directly involved with their COVID-19 patients at different stages—diagnosis, treatment, care, and in the process of death—as family members were unable to accompany COVID-19 patients, who ended up dying alone. Because of this, they are more vulnerable to psychological disorders, such as anxiety [ 2 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Moreover, the psychological impact produced by the COVID-19 pandemic can manifest itself as serious problems involving a deterioration in the health and operation of the healthcare population, resulting in anxiety, sleep disorders, stress, depression, burnout, acute stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder [ 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 17 , 19 , 20 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 29 , 35 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 45 , 48 , 52 , 60 , 64 , 66 , 67 , 68 ].Various studies have shown that the presence of anxiety is associated with symptoms of stress, nervousness, fear, fatigue, viral symptoms, job disappointment, perception of discrimination, and negative actions related to COVID-19 [ 1 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 19 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 36 , 59 , 62 , 63 …”

“…Ref. [ 13 ] highlighted that the high scores for resilience were significantly associated with a better quality of life and lower levels of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress in the healthcare population. Ref.…”