Graduating Nursing School
Author: Mary Haggard | Major: Nursing | Semester: Spring 2022
Moving through nursing school during a pandemic has been an uphill climb. My name is Mary Joslyn Haggard. I am a recent graduate from the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing. I will soon be moving to Houston, TX to start my nursing career in the Cardiac ICU at Texas Children’s Hospital. As I transition from nursing education to nursing practice, it has been interesting to learn about my peers’ feelings and fears regarding nursing as profession and how these attitudes were influenced by COVID-19. With the guidance of my mentor, Kelsey Gilmet of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, I developed and distributed a survey to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the health behaviors and feelings of career preparedness of nursing students.
Participants were recruited from the pre-licensure program at the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville during the Fall 2021 semester. The final sample consisted of 92 participants. The study used a cross-sectional design, retrospectively measuring behaviors and attitudes pre-pandemic and during the lockdown period. Two-tailed paired t-tests were run on the health behavior sections and feelings of career preparedness sections independently. Results were deemed significant with an alpha value set at 0.05.
Participants reported feeling depressed and alone more often during quarantine. Students reported experiencing more panic attacks, more headaches, and more frequent consumption of alcohol during quarantine. The mental health of nursing students is important to consider as nurses are expected to be a model of health for their patients and provide their patients with quality care. Confidence in communication skills was less common during quarantine than before quarantine. Students had less confidence in their time management abilities and stamina as well as critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. During quarantine, participants reported an increase in feeling anxious about their future as a nurse and decreased satisfaction in choosing nursing as a profession. Qualitative data suggested that this was related to the burn out and overworking of nurses being placed in the public eye. Further research is needed in this area to determine if there is correlation between nursing student perception of burnout and nursing student retention.
These results suggest that in a “new normal,” nursing schools could increase student well-being by making support to student studies a priority, especially for undergraduates. Also, nursing school curricula should incorporate ways to better support students and prepare them academically during states of emergency, with particular attention to the themes of burnout, resilience, and public health preparedness.
This study gave nursing students at the University of Arkansas a chance to express their feelings and thoughts on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their feelings of preparedness. This qualitative data was the most fascinating part of the research process to me. It was telling to see clear trending themes from such open-ended and broad questions. As I begin my career in nursing, I want to continue to be involved in quality improvement processes. The results of this study inspired me to advocate for better support for nurses wherever my career takes me.