Being a Nursing Student in a Pandemic: Fear of COVID-19 and Clinical Practice

Aim: This research was conducted to examine the views of nursing students on fear of COVID-19 and clinical practice training during the pandemic process. Methods: It is a descriptive study. Students studying in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of a university providing undergraduate nursing education in Turkey were included in the study. Subjects were recruited from a population of 235 students. The data of the research; the data were collected using the Introductory Information Form prepared by the researchers by scanning the literature and the “COVID-19 Fear Scale”. Number, percentage, and Kruskal Wallis H test were used to evaluate the data. Results: The mean age of the students participating in the study was found to be 20.65 ± 1.36. Students; a significant difference was found between their attitudes towards patient care in clinical practice, their thoughts on the impact of their clinical practice on their social lives, students’ thoughts about going to clinical practice, and their thoughts about experiencing pain, and their COVID-19 fear levels p<0.05. Conclusion: It was concluded that students with high COVID-19 fear levels did not want to take part in patient care in clinical practice, were afraid of being excluded from social life, and preferred school practice instead of clinical practice. In line with these results, it may be recommended to provide psychological support to eliminate fears of COVID-19 to encourage students to clinical practice.