Professional quality of life, stress, and trauma in nursing students: Before and during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess the levels of stress, burnout, primary and secondary trauma, and self-efficacy before and during the novel coronavirus pandemic in a sample of baccalaureate nursing and psychiatric nursing students, a population which has seldom been studied regarding these factors. METHOD: The study used a nonexperimental, cross-sectional methodology at 2 time-points. Nursing and psychiatric nursing students enrolled at 1 western Canadian university were invited to participate in an online, anonymous survey in 2020 prior to the pandemic and in 2021 during Canada's third-wave. Survey measures included the Professional Quality of Life Scale (includes Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress), the Perceived Stress Scale, the Life Events Checklist to assess the amount of prior traumatic experiences, and the Core Self-Evaluations Scale. RESULTS: Statistically higher significant differences in prior traumatic experiences measured by the Life Events Checklist were found in the midpandemic cohort in comparison to the prepandemic 2020 student cohort (t(159) = -2.32, p < .05, 95% CI [-2.23, -.18]). Strong correlated relationships were found in many of the study variables (ranging from r = .301 to -.745, p ≤ .001). CONCLUSION: This preliminary study is the first to reveal that students in the nursing field experienced more traumatic events during the pandemic than before. The findings imply that access to greater support for experiences of trauma may be needed to support undergraduate students entering the health care arena amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).