Determine the psychological impact and the perception of online learning due to covid-19 among nursing students

Covid19 can result in psychological issues due to both pandemic stress and the physical effects of the disease. Due to pandemic and lockdown, online learning was started for all students. Student's anxiety and depression level increased significantly. This study was done to determine the psychological impact and the perception of online learning due to Covid-19 among nursing students in selected nursing colleges at Madurai''. A descriptive design was used. Samples were selected by non probabilityconvenience sampling technique.Patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale had 9 items, it is interpreted from no depression to severe depression, Perceived stress scale had 10 items and it is interpreted from low stress to high stress and Questionnaire on perception of online learning and 35 items, it is interpreted as positive and negative perception. The study finding depicts that 230(37.8%) of the nursing students had mild level of depression, 157(25.8%) had moderate level of depression, 136 (22.4%) had minimal level of depression, 51(8.4%) had moderately severe level of depression, 18(3%) had no depression and only few 16(2.6%) of the students had severe level of depression. The study shows that the majority 448(73.7%) of the nursing students had medium level of stress, 139(22.9%) of the nursing students had low level of stress and only 21(3.5%) of the students had high level of stress. Larger proportion 369(60.7%) of the nursing students had negative perception on online learning and 239 (39.3%) of the nursing students had positive perception on online learning. The study findings reveals that there was a statistically significant negative correlation between the depression and perception of online learning (r=0.180 at p<0.001) and between stress and the perception of online learning (r= -0.217 at p<0.001) among nursing students. The background variables namely gender (p=0.009), education of the mother (p=0.028) and hobbies (p=<0.001) had significant association with the depression. The background variables namely gender (p=0.016), religion (p=0.023) and types of device used for learning (p=<0.001)had significant association with the stress. The background variables namely year of study (p=0.035), mother tongue (p=0.001), type of device used for learning (p=0.050) and hobbies (p=0.004) had significant association with the perception of online learning.