RESUMO
(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic posed a major threat to global health and on the educational field. The purpose of this study is to identify and illustrate the psychosocial adaptation of nursing students to the sudden and exclusive application of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Methods: A qualitative interview research has been designed. Two focus groups of seven members each and six individual interviews were conducted in a sample of undergraduate nursing students in Greece from 3 March 2021, to 9 April 2021.; (3) Results: A qualitative thematic analysis of the data identified six themes: 1. Challenges; 2. Concerns; 3. Social changes; 4. Negative Emotions; 5. Evaluation; and 6. Teaching strategies.; (4) Conclusions: During its implementation, it identified gaps and weaknesses in the entire academic community. The study of the psychosocial adaptation of the academic community is considered crucial, as it can highlight the individual difficulties in distance learning and contribute to the improvement of the methods of its the improvement of its methods.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing students have had a key role in supporting the healthcare sector. They can join healthcare professionals in clinical practice or provide information to increase citizens' levels of knowledge and their compliance with the restriction measures. The study aimed to develop and validate a tool to measure knowledge of and attitudes toward COVID-19 among nursing students in Greece. METHODS: A questionnaire was developed through theoretical research and expert consultation. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 348 undergraduate nursing students of the Department of Nursing, Hellenic Mediterranean University, recruited by convenient sampling. Validity and reliability were analyzed. RESULTS: The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure was 0.84, indicating that the sample size was adequate for factor analysis. In addition, the p-value for Bartlett's test of sphericity was <0.001, denoting that the correlation matrix was suitable for factor analysis. The construct validity of the questionnaire was determined through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which revealed that 16 items lead to four factors: knowledge, attitude toward restriction measures, compliance with them, and volunteering. One of the key findings of this study was that participants preferred to receive information from valid sources rather than social media during the crucial period of the "infodemic". CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaire was shown to have satisfying psychometric properties and, therefore, can be used as a tool in future research in the area of nursing students' knowledge, attitudes, compliance, and volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic.