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.