Virtual education and the level of anxiety in times of pandemic in Nursing students, Cuenca-Ecuador 2021

Abstract

Introduction: The suspension of activities to stop the COVID-19 pandemic has led to some strategies to safeguard the continuity of the teaching-learning process. In this sense, the student population faces the challenge of continuing with virtual learning from their homes, this means a sudden change in the educational process of the teacher-student binomial, which has generated some emotional processes such as anxiety, depression among others. Objective: To analyze the process of virtual education and the level of anxiety in the students of the Nursing Career of the University of Cuenca during the health emergency due to COVID-19, Cuenca 2020. Methodology: A quantitative, descriptive study of cross-sectional cohort. The sample consisted of 176 nursing students belonging to the University of Cuenca, the instrument applied in this research was the William Zung anxiety assessment scale with a Cronbach's alpha of r = 0.77, the information was obtained through a virtual interview. Data analysis was performed with the SPSS statistical program using frequency and percentage tables. Results: 70% considered themselves to be in a vulnerable condition, 64% of the population had regular virtual learning, 12% used intra- and extra-home mobile data. The population presented mild anxiety with 24%, followed by 4% with moderate anxiety. Conclusions: The problems that arose due to virtuality were not a limitation for the trainers to achieve the educational process with low rates of stress and anxiety. However, they denote the deficiencies in the learning strategies, remaining in the master class, which preserves the teacher as a provider of knowledge but not as a facilitator of it, making the student the protagonist of their own knowledge and thereby strengthen meaningful learning.