Abstract
Objective: This study was planned to determine the COVID-19 phobia levels of nursing students studying at a foundation university in Istanbul.
Materials and Methods: The descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 249 nursing students who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. The data were collected with the online data collection form prepared by the researchers in line with the literature, and the form includes 19 questions on socio-demographic characteristics and 20 questions on the COVID-19 Phobia Scale.
Results: It was found that the mean age of the students participating in the study was 20.35±2.11 years, and 99.6% (n=248) were female, 25.7% (n=64) were 3rd-grade students and 57.4% (n=143) were living in the province, it was determined that 87.6% (n=218) had a habit of smoking, 22.9% (n=57) of them were not familiar with COVID-19, 33.7% of them had a relative who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and 81.9% (n=204) did not have any handshake/hug/contact with individuals other than their families. In the sample, the Cronbach’s Alpha of the scale was found to be 0.95. The C19P-S variable was found to be 60.17±20.18. The highest sensitivity was found in the item “I am extremely afraid of the possibility of catching the coronavirus in one of their families”. The highest phobia was seen in the social sub-dimension. The students with the most somatic phobia were the 2nd year students with a mean of 17.07±6.24. It was determined that the students with the highest level of social anxiety lived in the town. As the age increases, the level of economic phobia also increases.
Conclusion: It was determined that the COVID-19 phobia levels of the nursing students changed according to their age and place of residence, and their social and somatic anxieties were high. In line with these results, it is recommended to include methods of coping with infectious diseases, including COVID-19, in the nursing education curriculum and to provide psychological support for epidemics.