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Mental status of nursing students assessed using the general health questionnaire during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Turkey
Author(s) -
Göl İlknur,
Erkin Özüm
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
perspectives in psychiatric care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1744-6163
pISSN - 0031-5990
DOI - 10.1111/ppc.12740
Subject(s) - pandemic , general health questionnaire , mental health , turkish , covid-19 , nursing , medicine , population , psychology , psychiatry , environmental health , disease , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine the mental state of nursing students when the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the Turkish population reached its peak. Design and Methods This cross‐sectional study was remotely conducted using General Health Questionnaire‐12 (GHQ‐12) and personnel information form, for 2630 nursing students, in Turkey. Data were statistically analyzed. Findings The mean GHQ‐12 score was 3.04 ± 2.13, and 71.5% of nursing students scored ≥2 on the GHQ‐12, indicating risk for mental problems. We highlighted that nursing students who reported less sleep and diet during the COVID‐19 pandemic as well as those who thought they were suffering from COVID‐19 symptoms obtained significantly higher mean scores on the GHQ‐12. Practice Implications Our results showed that most nursing students reported mental problems during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Pre‐training of the frontline staff during outbreaks is needed to prepare them to deal with a global pandemic.