Emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students in the first years of a nursing program in Lima

Abstract

Objective: To determine the impact on emotional health during the covid-19 pandemic in first-year students of a Faculty of Health Sciences of a University of North Lima, 2020. Materials and methods: The present study is quantitative and Regarding the methodological design, it is a non-experimental, descriptive and cross-sectional study. The data collection technique was carried out with the DASS 21 Scale, which consists of 21 items. Results: Regarding the impact of the emotional health of the participants, the normal level predominated with 59.2% (n = 212), followed by 11.2% (n = 40) with a moderate level, 10.9% ( n = 39) with a mild level, 10.3% (n = 37) presented an extremely severe level and finally 8.4% (n = 30) presented a severe level. According to the dimensions, the impact of emotional health in its depression dimension, the normal level predominated with 58.9% (n = 211), followed by mild with 13.4% (n = 48), moderate with 12.3% (n = 44), extremely severe with 8.7% (n = 31) and severe with 6.7% (n = 24), in the impact of emotional health in its anxiety dimension, the normal level predominated with 44, 4% (n = 159), followed by extremely severe with 18.4% (n = 66), mild with 17.9% (n = 64), moderate with 11.2% (n = 40) and finally severe with 8.1% (n = 29). Finally, in the stress dimension the normal level predominated with 68.7% (n = 246), followed by moderate with 10.3% (n = 37), mild with 8.7% (n = 31), severe with 6.7% (n = 24) and extremely severe with 5.6% (n = 20). Conclusions: Regarding the impact of emotional health, the normal level predominated, followed by moderate, mild, extremely severe and finally severe level.