ABSTRACT
AIM: This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and willingness of nursing students to receive the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine and the influencing factors. BACKGROUND: Vaccination is one of the most effective measures to prevent COVID-19, but the vaccination acceptance rate varies across countries and populations. As trustworthy healthcare providers, nursing students' attitudes, knowledge and willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine may greatly affect the present and future vaccine acceptance rates of the population; however, studies related to the vaccine acceptance rates among nursing students are limited. METHODS: A convenience sampling method was adopted to select two medical universities in China. Following the cluster sampling method, nursing college students who were eligible for the study were selected. A cross-sectional survey was conducted by asking nursing students to complete an online questionnaire from February to April 2021. Descriptive statistics, t-tests/one-way analysis of variance (normal distribution), U tests/H tests (skewness distribution) and multivariate linear regression were performed. RESULTS: A total of 1488 valid questionnaires were collected. The score rates of the attitude, knowledge and vaccination willingness dimensions were 70.07%, 80.70% and 84.38%, respectively. Attitude was significantly influenced by vaccination status of family members. The main factors influencing knowledge were gender, grade and academic background. In terms of willingness, gender, academic background, visits to high-risk areas, vaccination status of family members and the side effects experienced after receiving other vaccines were significant influencing factors. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing students showed satisfactory vaccine acceptance rates. However, more attention should be paid to male students, younger students, those with a medical background, those with low grades and those whose family members had not received the COVID-19 vaccine or had side effects from the vaccine.