Anxiety among student nurses in the Philippines: A gender and year-level analysis and its contributing factors in the COVID-19 context

Abstract

Background: The shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns and heightened anxiety levels, especially among student nurses adapting to academic and clinical challenges.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the anxiety levels of student nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, examining gender and year-level differences and identifying contributing factors.

Methods: A quantitative descriptive research design was employed, involving 305 student nurses from Levels 1 to 4, selected using proportionate stratified and systematic random sampling at a Philippine nursing school. Data were collected in March 2022 using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and a self-made questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including frequencies, percentages, means, Independent t-tests, and ANOVA, were utilized with a significance level of 0.05.

Results: The mean anxiety level among student nurses was 1.61, significantly differing by year level and gender (p <0.05). The most contributing factor of anxiety was ‘the adjustments to make with the sudden change of face-to-face classes to online or distance learning mode’ (90.16%), while the least factor was ‘lack of financial sources' (46.23%).

Conclusion: Student nurses had moderate anxiety levels, with gender and year level as significant contributing factors. Female student nurses experienced higher anxiety levels than males, and lower-level students experienced greater anxiety than their higher-level counterparts. Various factors, including academic, social, financial, and perceived health risk-related factors, affected student nurses’ anxiety levels, with academic-related factors having the most significant impact and financial-related factors having the least impact.

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Funding Description

This study was not funded by any organization, but all the costs were shouldered by the research group

Declaration of Conflicting Interest

The authors declared no conflicting interests in this study.

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledged the participants who joined this study.

Authors’ Contributions

FLP is a Lead Person in this study who constructed and checked all the contents of the study output as well as drafted and revised the manuscript. Other authors contributed to the study design, data collection, analysis, and manuscript writing. All authors were accountable for the study and approved the final version of the article to be published.

Data Availability Statement

Data were available upon request to the corresponding author.

Declaration of the Use of AI in Scientific Writing

The article was subjected to Plagscan and Grammarly before it was submitted for publication.

References

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