Search

Background: Mental health conditions related to traumatic stress exposure are common in practicing nurses. Less is known about the impact of trauma on nursing students and how it affects their transition to practice., Objectives: The purpose of this study is to understand the experience of trauma exposure and resulting symptoms in undergraduate nursing students., Design: This is an analysis of baseline data from a longitudinal study. Students in an undergraduate nursing program completed a survey with validated instruments to measure trauma exposure, risk and protective factors, and trauma symptoms., Settings: The study took place in an undergraduate nursing program in the United States., Participants: A total of 248 nursing students participated in the study., Results: The nursing students reported a higher number of adverse childhood experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms than the general population. Additionally, mental health symptoms and burnout symptoms increased over time., Conclusions: Nursing students are at high risk for PTSD and other mental health conditions due to cumulative trauma. Interventions are needed to address trauma in developing nurses.

Background: As the state facing the second-largest nursing workforce shortage in the U.S. and low vaccination rates among residents early in the pandemic, Texas provided a unique opportunity to examine vaccine hesitancy and hesitant adoption among nursing students in an environment where state-level executive orders prohibited mandatory vaccinations., Methods: The purpose of this study was to describe the level of vaccine hesitancy and hesitant adoption among nursing students in the state of Texas. We used a convenient, opt-in, online survey of nursing students conducted between mid-April and mid-June 2022. The survey was distributed to all pre-licensure nursing programs in Texas., Results: The majority of survey respondents (n = 599) were between the ages of 18-28 (68 %), female (88 %) and white (57 %). Most received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination (84 %). Of those receiving the vaccine, a high proportion (82 %) were identified as hesitant adopters. Respondents cited concerns about side effects (57 %) most frequently as the reason for vaccine hesitancy., Conclusion: Given the worldwide nursing shortage, factors potentially impacting the future workforce, such as vaccine hesitancy and hesitant adoption, must be closely monitored. More research is needed to understand the concerns of nursing students and the motivations of hesitant and non-hesitant adopters., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Author(s).)