Determination of anxiety levels and perspectives on the nursing profession among candidate nurses with relation to the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose This study aimed to determine the anxiety level of candidate nurses and capture their perspective on the nursing profession in light of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Design and Methods This descriptive study consisted of 322 nursing students in Turkey after the pandemic announcement of the World Health Organization. A web-based survey was used and anxiety levels was determined via State Anxiety Scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Findings Positive perspectives (63.4%) on the nursing profession before the pandemic decreased to 50.6%, whereas the negative (26.7%), and the undecided (9.9%) perspectives increased to 32.3% and 17.1%, of the total respectively. A significant increase was found in the anxiety scores with negative perspectives combined with an unwillingness to practice their profession in the future (P < .05). Practice Implications Pregraduate training should be provided to candidate nurses about pandemic nursing and professional difficulties they may possibly encounter in infection epidemics.

Automated summary

The study found that the number of nursing students with positive attitudes towards the nursing profession decreased before the COVID-19 pandemic, while those with negative and undecided attitudes increased. Anxiety levels significantly increased in students with negative attitudes who were unwilling to practice nursing in the future.