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South Africa's primary health care relies on nurses, the largest healthcare profession. Thus, their mental health must be maintained. Due to the rising number of infectious illnesses and workload, COVID-19 has overburdened the public health system. Due to these demands, nurses worked long hours and burnt out. Recognising nurses' role in providing excellent PHC services to communities and protecting their mental health is crucial. It examined the mental health effects of COVID-19 on nurses in Ekurhuleni South sub-district primary healthcare institutions and identified mental health issues following exposure. A self-administered questionnaire was used to perform a quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive survey of 280 primary healthcare nurses in the South sub-district of Ekurhuleni. Every eligible nurse who was available for data collection was picked using sequential sampling. The data collection tool included socio-demographic data, health and COVID-19 profiles of nurses and their families, mental health profiles and the impact of COVID-19 on participants, and conventional depressive, anxiety, and insomnia screening measures. Analysing data with descriptive statistics and testing for associations with the Chi-squared test. Most of the 280 nurse participants—87.5%—were female. From 28 to 63, participants participated. 40.4 percent of participants were 38–47 years old, while 13.9% were 58 and older. They had 54.6% diplomas, 23.2% degrees, 18.2% certificates, and 3.9% postgraduate degrees. Eighty-five percent of nurses were professional, with a median of 16 years. Nursing staff were 77.1% COVID-19-positive and 79.29% quarantined. 67% of nurses' family members had COVID-19, and 53.9% had lost someone close to them. Pre-pandemic, 87.1% of nurses had no psychiatric history. A high prevalence of clinical depression, anxiety, and sleeplessness was found in nurses, especially professional nurses and those aged 38–47. Study found 72.86% of nurses had serious depression and 17.5% mild depression. Nurses had 63.2% severe anxiety, 28.6% moderate anxiety, and 8.2% mild anxiety. This distribution demonstrates that 91.8% of nurses had moderate to severe anxiety, and 71.4% had clinical sleeplessness, where 36.8% were severe, 34.6% moderate, and 27.1% subthreshold. Most nurses had clinical depression, anxiety, and sleeplessness risk. Nurses reported depression, anxiety, and insomnia after COVID-19 exposure. Knowing these patterns of mental health issues among nurses is essential for designing comprehensive mental health support measures to address the immediate and long-term consequences of COVID-19 on their mental health.

The pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to healthcare and nursing education. Clinical exposure provides students the opportunity to acquire knowledge and prepare for their professional responsibilities. A high-quality, safe clinical learning environment is essential for fostering students' professional and academic development, which has been adversely affected by the global pandemic. To investigate the educational challenges and psycho-emotional impacts of the pandemic on the clinical teaching of undergraduate nursing students at a university in Gauteng, South Africa. A qualitative exploratory and descriptive technique was employed, utilising semi-structured face-to-face interviews that were audio recorded. Purposive sampling was utilised, and 25 persons expressed interest in participating; however, data saturation was achieved with 15 participants. Participation was voluntary, and participants' information was maintained in a confidential and private manner.  Thematic data analysis was conducted, revealing themes related to educational setbacks necessitating adjustments, including hybrid learning as an alternative clinical teaching and learning method, simulation as an alternative clinical teaching and learning method, extension of training, absenteeism from clinical areas, and NEI unpreparedness for the pandemic. The categories of Reluctance at clinical settings, Anxiety and Fear, Stress, Regret, and Loss of Hope constituted the theme of Psycho-emotional consequences. This research indicated that undergraduate nursing students encountered considerable educational challenges and psychological distress during clinical instruction amid the epidemic. Consequently, it is essential to raise awareness that NEIs should be better equipped for pandemics of this sort. It required all stakeholders to evaluate and formulate strategies for professional nursing education during pandemics in conjunction with students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has far-reaching social and economic consequences for everyone. Every country in the world was affected by the pandemic in one way or the other. To mitigate the effects, companies around the world implemented working from home strategies. However, not all jobs can be done from home. This means that healthcare workers were exempt from the working from home initiative. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the nurses’ mental health in the Thohoyandou area. The study was qualitative in nature and used exploratory research design. A sample of 15 participants were selected purposefully at Tshilidzini Hospital.  An interview guide was used for data collection and thematic content analysis was employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that the impact of COVID-19 on nurses’ mental health was anxiety and fear, depression and loneliness. The challenges nurses experienced include shortages of staff, workloads, shortage of personal protective equipment and lack of compensation. Moreover, this study revealed that nurses supported each other and used faith to cope with the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health. This study has made imperative recommendations such as counselling or debriefing as coping strategies for nurses and adequate supply of resources for healthcare workers. The study further motivates continual research to explore the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers’ mental health.

In this study, 403 participants were asked questions to determine the preventive measures being taken and anxiety levels during COVID-19 Pandemic. Participants were almost equally divided between women (55%) and men (45%). The rate of most worried persons about the pandemic was 62%. The risk of anxiety of women compared to men has been calculated as 2.1 times higher (95% CI 1.20–3.84). The Cramer’s V value of the change in hand-washing habit before and after COVID-19 outbreak is 0.706, indicates the existence of a strong relationship. The data is analysed by using SPSS 24.0. ODDS Ratio values are calculated to determine the impact levels, and Cramer’s V value is calculated to determine the relationship in behavior change in hand-washings habits.