Nursing Students’ Applications, Knowledge Needs, Self-Efficacy During COVID-19: A Descriptive Study

Aim: Nursing students are also a health educator. During the COVID-19 process, nursing students both provided health education to individuals in need in their environment and implemented protective measures themselves. The aim of this study was to determine nursing students' self-efficacy, basic knowledge, and protective measures they applied during the COVID-19 outbreak.Method: This was a descriptive study. Ethics committee approval was obtained for the study. Data were collected interactively. The sample consisted of 672 voluntary nursing students 18 years of age from the universities in Turkey. Data were made using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, v 21.0); Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney-U tests, and Spearman’s correlation were used. "STROBE" checklist has been followed.Results: Gender had an effect on self-efficacy. Income level, place of residence, and self-efficacy had an effect on the number of in-house preventive measures. Regarding COVID-19 protection measures; girls, those living in rural areas and those with low income were found to be disadvantaged.Conclusion: Nursing students may need to be supported to feel competent. It may be recommended to educate disadvantaged groups as a priority in preventing the spread of the epidemic. In addition, nursing students can take part in the health education of the community. The findings of this study emphasize the importance of improving nursing education. Nursing students can guide society in public education.