Reinforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic: Perception of nursing students and impact on intention to drop-out of nursing education.

BACKGROUND

Although the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on students has already been studied, its impact on nursing students' perception of their training and their conception of their future profession is unknown.

AIMS

To describe nursing students' perception of their involvement in reinforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of working as reinforcement staff during the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing students.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional, comparative case/non-case study.

SETTING

nurse training institutions in France.

PARTICIPANTS

"Cases" defined as nursing students who worked as reinforcement staff during the COVID-19 pandemic; "non-cases" defined as people who were in final year of nursing studies in 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 and so did not work as reinforcement staff during their nursing studies.

METHODS

questionnaire about representations of the nursing profession, role of the nurse in society, previous thinking of dropping out of nursing education.

RESULTS

534 subjects included (310 cases; 214 non-cases). Cases reported feeling useful (38.6%) or very useful (25.7%) as reinforcement workers, while 91.5% concurred that nurses had an important role in the management of COVID-19 patients. Cases more frequently reported that the nursing profession is one where you save lives (61.5% vs 52.5%, p = 0.05). The desire to work as a nurse for a whole life had been more frequently expressed by cases (45.3% vs 34.8%, p = 0.05). Nursing education drop-out has been considered by 63.4% of subjects, without difference between "cases" and "non-cases" (p = 0.63). Subjects who considered dropping out of nursing education were younger (p = 0.01) and less often prone to think that the nursing profession was a profession personally rewarding (p = 0.01) and a life-saving profession (p = 0.03).

CONCLUSION

The majority of nursing students reported feeling useful during the pandemic, and underlined the importance of the nurse's role in management of COVID-19 patients. Participation in reinforcement staff during the pandemic had no influence on dropping out of nursing education.