Exploring the emotional effects of pandemic COVID-19 on health graduation students

Abstract

A pandemic scenario, such as COVID-19, corroborates a state of mental stress worldwide. Studies have been shown to affect health professionals. The rapid evolution of an outbreak, which spread across all continents, has generated global concern, not only for the number of cases of infected people and deaths, but also for the great global biopsychosocial impacts caused, which may exceed the capacity to cope with affected people. In relation to health students, this situation can be similar. Bearing in mind that, in the future, these students will be the next health professionals, it is essential to analyze their emotional stability in the face of this pandemic situation, in addition to measuring whether greater knowledge in the field of health contributes or not to an increase in mental stress. Objectives: To evaluate the frequency of symptoms of depression, anxiety of undergraduate health students through recommended scales, in addition to knowing their reactions and perception about the implementation of Digital Teaching (EAD) in this period of Pandemic COVID-19. METHODS: Using the email resource, all students regularly enrolled in the medical, nursing, pharmacy and speech therapy courses at Unicamp, and medicine and dentistry at Faculdade São Leopoldo Mandic will be invited to participate in the study. After agreement and consent, a link will be sent to students, by e-mail, to access the data collection form comprising the following instruments: State-Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI) as a reliable measure to assess trait and anxious state, Scale of Anxiety Beck depression (DBI II) as a reliable measure to assess symptoms of depression, and a closed questionnaire designed especially for this study. Graduates who accept to participate and who respond to the data collection form will be sent a new invitation to participate in a Focus Group, also to be carried out online, as the second component of the study. Data Analysis: It is expected to determine the frequency of students in the health field who demonstrated symptoms of depression and anxiety resulting from the pandemic and to know their reactions and perceptions about the distance study carried out at this time. All data obtained with the aid of the Google Forms program (study form), for further analysis will be used for parametric and nonparametric comparison tests, according to the data distribution. Initially, an analysis will be made in relation to the students' responses about the frequency of signs related to their mental health, specifically signs of anxiety and depression, based on the recommended scales. Then, specific characteristics of each student will be taken into account, analyzing their context in the current pandemic moment and their assessment in relation to digital education (EAD). The data obtained in the Focus Groups will be treated and analyzed according to the content analysis methodology. Expected results: Emotional changes during this time of global health crisis are expected, but we need to know the real impacts of this on students' lives in order to find appropriate solutions to help them during the process and also when we return to our normal activities. (AU)