The multidimensionality of anxiety among nursing students during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

Background: Over the past year, healthcare workers constantly report their COVID-19 anxiety. However, this concept remained understudied among nursing students (NSs).

Aim: This study investigated the difference between NSs' three types of anxiety and their profile variables during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This study used a cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational design. Three instruments were used: COVID-19 anxiety scale (CAS), COVID-19 anxiety syndrome scale (COVID-19ASS), and short health anxiety inventory (SHAI) to collect data from 484 Saudi NSs. We applied the Mann-Whitney U test and linear regression to analyze the data.

Results: Across the three instruments; CAS, Item 1 "I feel bad when thinking about COVID-19"; COVID-19ASS, Item 11 "I have imagined what could happen to my family members if they contracted COVID-19"; and SHAI, Item 17 "A serious illness could ruin many aspects of my life" yielded the highest means. COVID-19ASS showed a significant difference for the profiles "known positive" (p = 0.05) and "action taken after with testing" (p = 0.05). NS, who knew someone with COVID-19, was the only predictor of CAS.

Conclusion: Our study concludes NSs experience anxiety symptoms. Anxiety is specific to COVID-19 or a set of similar anxiety symptoms. Further research is needed to explore the anxiety state of NSs during the pandemic.