Psychological Distress and Coping among Undergraduate Nursing Students of Kashmir during Pandemic Covid 19

Psychological distress refers non specific symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression considered as a warning to the mental health. This research was conducted during COVID-19 to assess the major implications of mental health among nursing students due to closure of colleges, universities and offline classes which restricted one to one and physical interaction globally, Kashmir as well. The study examined the psychological distress and coping adopted by nursing undergraduate students of Kashmir during this pandemic Covid 19. Methods: A cross- sectional online descriptive study was conducted; using purposive sampling consists of 183 under graduate nursing students from selected nursing colleges of Kashmir. Data was gathered as online responses to a questioner from17-10-20 to 7-11-2020, includes socio demographic variables, psychological distress scale (K10) and brief coping resilience scale. Results: Among 183 participants the majority of 171 (93.4%) were in the age group of 19-23 and female 122(66.7%).Most had younger 80 (43.7%) birth order belonging to nuclear family 141(77%) with majority from rural area 147 (80.3%).Over the last four weeks majority of study participants have perceived moderate psychological distress 61(33.3) with Medium75(41%) and low 63(34.4) resilient copers with a p-value of 0.000*.Negative Correlation was found. Conclusions: Most of the study subjects reported sufferings from varying degree of psychological distress during covid crisis over the 4 weeks. This reveals that there is need of an intervention to enhance skill of coping strategies and decrease distress in this crisis situation