INVESTIGATION OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AND CORE EMERGENCY RESPONSE COMPETENCIES OF STUDENT NURSES IN THE COVID-19 EPIDEMIC

Chunhui Chen^{1, 2}, Zhenfan Liu³, Rui Zhao⁴, Lin Long^{1, 2, *}

¹Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan, China - ²School of Nursing, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan, China - ³Deyang People's Hospital of Sichuan Province, Deyang, Sichuan, China - ⁴School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

¹Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan, China - ²School of Nursing, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan, China - ³Deyang People's Hospital of Sichuan Province, Deyang, Sichuan, China - ⁴School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Objective: We aimed to understand the psychological resilience and core emergency response competencies of student nurses during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic and to use our findings as the basis for adjusting the curriculum of nursing colleges and medical institutions for student nurses’ training and psychological interventions.

Methods: We adopted a convenience sampling method from February 5 to 10, 2020. A questionnaire link was sent via WeChat was used to conduct an online survey of student nurses at a nursing college.

Results: The average psychological resilience score of the student nurses was (61.66±15.92), which was lower than that of the general population in China. The student nurses’ average core emergency response competency score was (117.91±23.54) reflected a medium level of competency. Differences in psychological resilience were present among student nurses at various educational levels (p<0.05). Additionally, the core emergency response competency was higher among students who had internship experiences in fever clinics or infectious disease departments (p<0.05). There was a positive correlation between the core emergency response competencies and all dimensions of psychological resilience (p<0.05).

Conclusion: During the COVID-19 epidemic, we found that student nurses had a low level of psychological resilience and a medium level of core emergency response competencies. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen training on COVID-19-related knowledge and to provide targeted psychological interventions.