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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 the face of the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this article thoroughly explores the intricate landscape of COVID-related trauma and psychological distress experienced during lockdown enforcement, analyzing its origins and repercussions. By delving into individuals’ experiences throughout the lockdown period, the study investigates how lockdown measures con- tributed to heightened trauma and psychological distress, particularly focusing on triggers such as illness fear, disrupted routines, and social isolation. The profound impact of isolation and restrictions on mental health and well-being is scrutinized, revealing disparities among various demographic groups in enduring COVID-related trauma. The article underscores adaptive coping mechanisms, like virtual connections and creative outlets, while emphasizing the crucial role of mental health support in mitigating trauma effects. It also elucidates the amplified trauma resulting from pandemic uncertainty and lockdowns, highlighting technology’s role in alleviating distress. Cultural factors are examined, and the article concludes by offering recommendations for policymakers to integrate mental health services into crisis response plans, foster community resilience, and enhance public education on coping strategies to promote overall well-being during crises.

This paper assesses the relational impacts of attitude towards organizational change (ATOC), perceived social support (PSS), teleworking (TW), and self-harming behaviors (SHB) on the psychological health (PH) of married career women (MCW) post-Covid-19. The sample for this research was extracted from six (6) work organizations in the Lagos and Oyo States of Nigeria. The participants were married career women who were employees within the study organizations. This study advocated a cross-sectional survey using self-reported questionnaires. 222 of the 240 questionnaires distributed were examinable and subject to statistical analysis using the Social Sciences Statistical Package (SPSS version 28). This study revealed a link between attitude toward organizational change and mental health. Additionally, it demonstrated a strong positive association between perceived social support and psychological health. It also mentioned the extent to which teleworking correlates with mental health. Further, it showed a negative association between self-harming behaviors and psychological health. Moreover, this study demonstrated the joint, potent, and substantial impacts of attitude towards organizational change, perceived social support, teleworking, and self-harming behaviors on the psychological health of married career women.

The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in a global public health and mental health disaster and a massive negative psychosocial experience for students. The counteractive measures are mainly on epidemiology, prevention, and management of the COVID-19 infection, with little attention on mental health. From this background, this study sought to assess the effect of COVID-19 on students’ mental health during quarantine and isolation. An exploratory qualitative research design was applied to determine how COVID-19 affected students' mental health during quarantine and isolation. Purposive sampling was used to obtain cases deemed rich in information to ensure that saturation was reached. Thus, 12 students participated in the study. Data was collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using Tesch’s method of data analysis. The trustworthiness of data was ensured through credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability. The study revealed that participants experienced behavioural changes during quarantine and isolation. Irregular sleeping patterns, difficulty in sleeping, and decreased appetite were the behavioural changes that the participants reported. The study also highlighted the coping techniques used by the participants during their quarantine and isolation periods. Religion and support from healthcare workers, family, and friends were some coping strategies that most participants believed to be beneficial. It is concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented threat to students’ mental health during quarantine and isolation.

The aim of this study is to explore how COVID-19 influences the mental health of old age employees by posing challenges to psychological resilience thus affecting their work engagement. The data was collected from three countries, China, Pakistan, and the UK, through eighteen semi-structured interviews. Three sub-themes emerged under the core theme of “psychological challenges”: “cognitive challenges”, “physical challenges”, and “behavioral challenges”. Similarly, “individual resilience” and “group resilience” emerged under the core theme of “psychological resilience”. The results showed that the mental health of old age employees without having any medical complications was also affected during the pandemic thus resulting in low work engagement. The data was collected from three countries namely China, Pakistan, and the UK. Furthermore, data were collected through telephonic interviews so some aspects of the study might be left unexplored which can only be possible through face to face interaction. This study, in line with the previous literature, indicate that challenges explored related to COVID-19 can significantly influence the mental wellbeing of aging employees. The study also encourages employers to understand the limitations of aging employees and develop flexible policies that can have a positive impact on work engagement. The study presents a novel approach contributing to the knowledge gap of COVID-19 impact on wellbeing and work engagement of healthy but senescent employees.

Experiencing a pandemic and being quarantined have been proven to have debilitating effects in mental health. Some of the existing studies mentioned in this research have been conducted to assess the presence of possible mental health concerns brought about by the pandemic but most of these studies focused on the earlier phase of the pandemic. The present study focuses on the reported distress of the respondents who have been through a strict quarantine since March 2020 and are now experiencing a more relaxed lockdown. The objective of this research is to determine if COVID stress predicts common mental health concerns such as stress, depression and anxiety. A survey was conducted with 421 Filipino respondents ages 15 – 65 utilizing the COVID Stress Scales (CSS) by Taylor et al. (2020) and DASS-21. Correlational analysis was utilized showing the COVID Stress is a predictor of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Then, comparative analyses were conducted to determine if differences of COVID stress across age groups, gender, occupation, and exposure. The results show that students and unemployed respondents are highly vulnerable to COVID stress and its mental health implications. Men and women did not significantly differ in distress. Surprisingly, those who have a COVID positive family member had the lowest COVID stress and DASS scores. There were 40.7% percent who experienced moderate to severe stress, 60.3% had moderate to severe anxiety and 53.1% of the respondents had moderate to severe depression. These findings show that the pandemic stress has debilitating effects on mental health. Common mental health concerns (e.g. depression and anxiety) may be highly prevalent due to the COVID-19 pandemic

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.