Nursing students' perception of their mental health in a public university, 2023

Abstract

Nursing students constitute a population at risk from the point of view of mental health; the different situations they face during their training increase the risk of developing emotional problems such as stress, depression, anxiety, among others, which is why it is imperative to determine these conditions. This research focused on identifying the perceptions of nursing students about their mental health in a public university in the year 2023. The design was observational, quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional with analytical components. The population consisted of 69 students obtained through non-probabilistic convenience sampling. The main results were: average age 20 years, 76.8% female, 87% single, 87% from Asunción and Central, 30.4% work to pay for their studies and 24.6% have sick people in their care at home. According to the students' perception of how they felt in the last 15 days, 95.7% felt anxious, 79.7% depressed, 98.6% stressed, 85.5% distressed and 69.6% collapsed; 30.4% also stated that they sometimes wanted to hurt themselves. On the other hand, a statistically significant association was found between sex and having sick people at home with feeling collapsed; and hurting oneself with depression and feeling collapsed. In conclusion, the students' perceptions of their mental health show high percentages of anxiety, depression, stress, anguish and feeling collapsed, which merits the application of intervention strategies.