PERCEIVED STRESS DURING THE PANDEMIC COVID-19, IN NURSING INTERNS AT A UNIVERSITY OF EAST LIMA

Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) is a global public health emergency, which brings devastating effects on the economic and social field. In order to curb and control the spread of the infection, containment measures were taken, such as mandatory confinement and the closure of educational institutions, including universities. Stress is an emerging problem in today's life, and has been directly affecting the mental health of many people, including students in the health area of private universities. These have been affected due to the fact that many work in health areas where the workload and the risk of infection have been significantly increased by the pandemic, they have problems in their university payments, they live in uncertainty about how they will complete their pre-professional practices (suspended by the pandemic) and find it difficult to adapt to the virtual format of their classes. Recently a study in Mexico indicates that 70.5% of university students feel stressed by academic burden.

Stress is defined as the physiological reaction of the organism in which various defense mechanisms come into play to face a situation that is perceived as threatening or increased demand. The continuous presence of stressors in nursing students seems to be affecting behaviors and negatively influencing their health, which produces an increase in the desertion and dropping of subjects.

Certain psychological determinants such as coping strategies, emotional skills, level of resilience, and even certain personality characteristics, also have a significant influence on the management of stress in nursing students.

In order to guarantee comprehensive training and meet academic goals, it is necessary to assess stress in nursing students, this will allow timely strategies to improve this condition in students.

In this research work, the objective of this study was to explore the perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing interns at a University of East Lima. The focus of this research was quantitative and its design descriptive-transversal. There was a population of 40 nursing interns, of whom 39 are women (97.5%) and 90% study and work at the same time. The data collection instrument used is the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14), made up of 14 items, grouped into two dimensions, which measures the perception of psychological stress. The results on the perception of psychological stress indicate that the predominant level was medium with 57.5% (n = 23), followed by high with 25% (n = 10), and low with 17.5% (n = 7). Regarding the dimensions greater stress and less stress, in both cases the average level predominated with 62.5% and 60% respectively. The psychological state of health of the students deserves special attention, for this reason it is necessary that the academic authorities, through their area of student well-being, develop a series of strategies that minimize the stressors and prepare them so that they have a greater capacity coping with stress, in order to find a balance in your emotional health.