Depression among Nursing Students and Related Factors In the Situation of the COVID–19 Pandemic

Abstract

                The pandemic of COVID–19 has impacted on mental health and threatened normal life living. This may lead to depression that affects both individual and family The nursing students were adolescents who are at risk of depression which affect learning and may lead to suicide. The purpose of this research was to study the depression among nursing students and related factors in the situation of the COVID–19 pandemic. The 67 nursing students of 1st–4th year were enrolled through purposive sampling from October to December, 2022. The research instrument consisted of 6–part questionnaire; 1) general information 2) depression screening using 2Q 3) depression screening using PHQ9 4) socioeconomic factors 5) social intelligence factors and 6) factors affecting student’s stress in learning. The reliability tested by the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were between 0.8–0.9. Data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation.

                   The results found that 38.81% of 4th year students had depression which was highest among all students. The result from correlation analysis beteen related factors and depression revealed a very low correlation between socio–economic factors (r = 0.22, p = 0.70), social intelligence factors (r = 0.16, p = 0.21) and depression. The stress factor had very low significant correlation with depression (r = 0.29, p = 0.02). This research suggested that students who are at high risk of depression, a focus group or intervention should implemented in this group to develop help guidelines and continuous care.

                Keywords: Nursing students, Factors, depression