The Fear of Contracting COVID-19 among Undergraduate Student Nurses and its Impact on their Academic Performance
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Abstract
Background: The Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has evoked fear in undergraduate nursing students. This fear consequently causes a decrease in academic performance among nursing students.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine: 1) the fear level of contracting covid-19 among undergraduate student nurses, 2) how this fear of contracting COVID-19 among undergraduate student nurses has impacted their academic performance and, 3) if the fear of contracting COVID-19 among undergraduate student nurses in Jamaica influences their academic performance.
Methods: This research is a correlational cross-sectional study. Data collection in this research occurred by a standardized online questionnaire created on Google Forms. The participants (N=510) of this research included 1st -4th year nursing students across Jamaica. The retrieved data were stored then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows version 27.0. The researchers used a P-value of 0.05 to determine the statistical significance.
Results: This study revealed that 54.3% of the respondents felt fearful that they might contract COVID-19. It also showed that most respondents had a high to very high fear level 36.1 (184) to 22.2 (113), respectively, towards contracting COVID-19. The cross-tabulation of the fear scale and the GPA showed a statistical association.
Conclusions: The fear of contracting COVID-19 harms undergraduate nursing students' academic performances. As such, this should raise the alarm and prompt immediate intervention planning.