Herdís Sveinsdóttir

Background Knowledge is lacking about the effects of COVID‐19 on nursing students' burnout symptoms. Burnout can lead to negative feelings and behaviours towards learning and poor mental health. Aims To describe and compare nursing/midwifery students' burnout, explore differences and detect predictors at two time points through COVID‐19. Methods Students were offered participation in the spring semesters of 2020 and 2021 (N = 2046), during COVID‐19. The response rate was 30–33%. By using reliable and valid instruments, the students’ stress and burnout were analysed as well as the students’ health and perceived support. Results Symptoms of academic burnout were higher among 1st and 2nd year BSc students in 2021. On the contrary, 3rd and 4th year students had higher academic and personal burnout than graduate students as well as than 1st and 2nd year students. Regarding academic burnout, 47% of the variability was explained by educational level, support, stress and the interactional effect of stress and support. Collaborational burnout, predicted by the students' educational level and support, explained 7% of the variability in the outcome. Additionally, educational level, and stress, predicted 52% of the variability in personal burnout. Conclusion Educators or student counsellors need to facilitate effective learning practices and offer academic support, specifically during 3rd and 4th year to boost helpful coping strategies and handle uncertainty and stressors related to crises such as COVID‐19.

Aims The aim of this study was to explore the educational expectations and experiences of surgical patients. Design Prospective, longitudinal, descriptive and two‐centre study. Data were collected with questionnaires at the hospital and 6 weeks and 6 months postsurgery. Methods Patients undergoing elective surgery and hospitalized overnight from January to July 2016 answered questions about the content of received pre‐operative and pre‐discharge education, topics they wanted more information on, sources of information, satisfaction with and usefulness of the information and if their recovery was as expected. Results Patients ( N = 697, 49% male, mean age 64.1 [ SD 12.6] years) perceived the provided education as useful and satisfactory but less so after discharge. Most common topics which they expected more education about were postoperative complications, pain management, fatigue, lack of stamina and expected recovery time. Most patients received information through face‐to‐face teaching (79.7%) and in writing (78.4%). Expectations on recovery were related to patients' satisfaction with the education and how useful they evaluated it.