The psychological effects of working in the NHS during a pandemic on final-year students: part 1

Abstract

Resilience in nursing and midwifery involves being able to manage ethically adverse situations without suffering moral distress and is key to mental wellbeing, staff retention and patient safety. The aim of this research was to ask what the psychological effects were for nursing and midwifery students who had been deployed to work in the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study looked at the incidence of burnout in a small cohort of nursing and midwifery students who were employed as band 4 aspirant nurses and midwives in acute NHS trusts in the south of England. The findings suggested that student midwives reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation than student nurses but overall, both cohorts of students reported moderate levels of burnout. Part 2 will present the lived experience of deployment as described by students.