Mental Health and COVID-19 in Nursing Students

Abstract

Introduction: The mental health of nursing students in times of COVID-19 has had diverse issues, which implies a challenge for training. Being an emerging matter, it is necessary to integrate in a unitary perspective the most relevant studies, to glimpse the immediate impacts of the pandemic and the actions that have been undertaken.

Objective: To analyze the available scientific evidence on the mental health of nursing students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Integrative review conducted during February and March 2021 in the databases Scopus, ScienceDirect, Lilacs, PubMed, CINHAL, Web of Science, SciELO and PsycINFO. The search equation included the terms Medical Subject Headings (MeSH): "Mental Health", "COVID-19" and "Students, Nursing", combined with the Boolean operator AND. We evaluated primary and secondary studies with different approaches or methodologies in Spanish, English or Portuguese, with full text availability, published up to the review date. Opinion articles and letters to the editor were excluded. From a total of 535 articles, 25 were included. Qualitative content analysis was performed.

Conclusions: Immediate impacts on emotions, mood states and emotional disorders such as anxiety, stress and depression were identified; all mediated by social, biological and psychological determinants. Actions taken are related to coping strategies and institutional responses.