Effect of Anxiety Levels of Nursing Students on Their Attitudes Towards Vaccines During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the effect of nursing students’ anxiety levels on their attitudes towards vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic. Methods: The sample of this descriptive, cross-sectional study consisted of nursing students at a university between August 2021 and December 2021. The data were collected using the “Personal Information Form”, “Coronavirus Anxiety Scale”, and “Scale of Attitudes towards Covid-19 Vaccine” created by the researchers. Number, percentage, and mean tests were used for the descriptive characteristics of the students. T-test/ Mann‐Whitney U Test and correlation tests were used to compare these features with total scale scores and scale subdimension scores. Results: It was determined that 77.3% of the students were women, that 11.5% were diagnosed with Covid-19, and that 38.8% were vaccinated against Covid-19. It was found that 33.3% of the students trusted the Covid-19 vaccine whereas 68.8% thought that the vaccine protected. In assessing the reliability of the scale, the Cronbach’ alpha coefficients were calculated as 0.88 for the “Scale of Attitudes towards Covid-19 Vaccine” and 0.79 for the “Coronavirus Anxiety Scale”. Conclusions: The effect of anxiety levels of student nurses on their attitudes towards vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic was investigated. The pandemic process caused anxiety in student nurses, and the existence of difficulties related to their professional choices caused an increase in anxiety