Psychological Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Student Nurses

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared in early 2020 the emergence of a new highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus responsible for a global public health emergency. In France, the first cases of contamination have been reported since the end of January 2020, and the first death in mid-February 2020. Then, data published by Public Healh France reported an increasing and rapidly exponential number of contaminations. First cases have been identified on a cluster mode, then rapidly spreading in some French departments and regions, indicating rapid kinetics of virus spread. Given the magnitude of the situation both French territory and neighboring European territories (mainly Italy), the government mobilized the entire health system to critically manage this epidemic. This exceptional and unprecedented pandemic deeply impacted the health structures, disrupting healthcare organizations. All caregivers, including all student nurses, actively participated in the mobilization and strengthening of care teams. The health crisis exposed the population of caregivers to potentially traumatic events which can have major repercussions on their health state. The description and identification of the risk factors of the occurrence of post traumatic stress disorders in student nurses during the health crisis would allow to provide avenues for improving training devices and to facilitate health workers access to specific psychological care particularly dedicated to the student nurses population needs.