ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of students to stay indoors and adapt to the new normal, namely distance learning at home, placing online learning in the spotlight. However, students' motivation for online learning and its effectiveness in skill development during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been widely studied. This study examined the relationship between students' fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning while investigating the parallel mediating role of student psychological motivation and cognitive problem-solving skills related to online learning. The participants were 472 university students in Malaysia and Pakistan. An online data collection technique using Google Forms was employed. Faculty members of the universities were asked to share the survey with their students. Moreover, using a snowball sampling technique, students were requested to share the survey with their friends. SPSS Statistics (Version 21) was employed to do preliminary data analysis, AMOS (Version 21) software was used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis using a maximum likelihood estimation, and Hayes' PROCESS model was used to examine proposed hypotheses. The results show that only cognitive problem solving mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning in Malaysian samples. In Pakistan, cognitive problem solving and psychological motivation mediate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning. The study found that developing cognitive problem-solving skills and providing psychological motivation could enhance their engagement with online learning.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate the stress level among doctors and nurses during COVID-19 crises. Study design: Descriptive correlational study Place and duration of study: Department of Medicine &Critical Care, Services Hospital Lahore and Bahria International Hospital, Lahore from 1st May 2020 to 31st July 2020 Methodology: Descriptive correlational study design to evaluate the stress level among doctors and nurses. A couple of other factors were also identified like lack of personal protective equipment's (PPEs) and family pressure to quite job along with COVID-19 stress. Two groups were substituted one with exposure of COVID-19 and other without its exposure. The internal review board and ethical committee of Bahria International Hospital, Lahore, approved the study. Questionnaire was collected after proper informed consent from health professionals working at COVID management units at Services Hospital Lahore and Bahria International Hospital Lahore. Chi-Square test and Odd ratios were calculated among the stated groups of doctors and nurses. Results: Statistical analysis among the groups of doctors and nurses exposed and not exposed shows significant higher levels of anxiety in doctors and nurses who were involved in management of COVID-19 patients directly as compared to those who were not. Similarly, the level of risks increased almost double in the exposed healthcare workers. Availability of personal protective equipment and pressure from the families to quit the job also plays significant role in elevating of anxiety levels. Conclusion: Study concludes that anxiety increases in the health care professionals due to lack of robust systems to cope up with the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors like stress from family, lack of proper protective equipment leads to fear of being infected and taking the infection to their loved ones. It is responsibility of management of health care set ups to ensure the availability of PPEs and making a robust system of infection control to help combat the pandemic. © 2020 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.