Evans Josie M M, Andreis Federico, Cameron Dawn M, Eades Claire E
Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, FK9 4LA, UK.
BMC Nurs. 2021 Mar 17;20(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s12912-021-00563-w.
The lifestyle behaviours, and the physical and mental health of nurses, are poorer than those of other allied health professionals, and of the general population. However, these were no less favourable among first year undergraduate nursing students at a Scottish Higher Education Institution (HEI) than among similar people of the same age. We compared health and health behaviours among the same cohort of undergraduate nursing students over the course of their degree.
An anonymous self-complete repeat cross-sectional survey was administered during a timetabled teaching session at three time-points to undergraduate nursing students at the start of Years 1, 2 and 3 of their programme. They had received written information about the study previously.
Self-reported health did not change significantly over time, but there was a clear decline over the 3 years in the proportions of students rating their mental health as excellent/very good/good and a concomitant increase in those rating their mental health as fair/poor. Correspondingly, the mean WEMWBS wellbeing score declined over the 3 years, with the proportion of students with a score of < 46 (indicating either high risk of major depression, or in high risk of psychological distress and increased risk of depression) increasing from one quarter to one half. This effect was captured and described using a Bayesian regression analysis. The most noticeable change in health behaviours was a decline in physical activity levels over the study period. The proportion of students managing 150 min of weekly physical activity decreased from three quarters to two thirds. This was reflected in higher self-reported sedentary time, although there were no observable trends over time in mean BMI, or proportions of students categorised as overweight or obese.
This paper suggests that there may be a decline in mental health and in participation in physical activity among nursing students over the course of their degree. We recommend the incorporation of an intervention into the undergraduate nursing curriculum that promotes and encourages regular physical activity, offering students the opportunity to learn about health promotion and lifestyle change in practice, to improve their own physical health, and to address mental wellbeing.
护士的生活方式行为以及身心健康状况比其他健康专业人员和普通人群更差。然而，在苏格兰一所高等教育机构（HEI）的本科一年级护理专业学生中，这些情况并不比同龄的类似人群更糟糕。我们比较了同一批本科护理专业学生在其学位课程期间的健康状况和健康行为。
在课程表安排的教学时段，于该项目第1、2和3年开始时，对本科护理专业学生进行了三次匿名的自我填写式重复横断面调查。他们之前已收到有关该研究的书面信息。
自我报告的健康状况随时间没有显著变化，但在3年期间，将自己的心理健康评为优秀/非常好/良好的学生比例明显下降，而将自己的心理健康评为一般/差的学生比例相应增加。相应地，WEMWBS幸福感平均得分在3年期间下降，得分<46（表明有患重度抑郁症的高风险，或有心理困扰的高风险以及抑郁症风险增加）的学生比例从四分之一增加到二分之一。使用贝叶斯回归分析捕捉并描述了这种效应。健康行为最明显的变化是在研究期间身体活动水平下降。每周进行150分钟体育活动的学生比例从四分之三下降到三分之二。这反映在自我报告的久坐时间增加上，尽管平均BMI或被归类为超重或肥胖的学生比例随时间没有明显趋势。
本文表明，护理专业学生在其学位课程期间心理健康和体育活动参与度可能会下降。我们建议在本科护理课程中纳入一项干预措施，以促进和鼓励定期体育活动，为学生提供在实践中学习健康促进和生活方式改变的机会，以改善他们自己的身体健康，并解决心理健康问题。
