Nursing Students’ Willingness and Confidence to Volunteer in a Pandemic

INTRODUCTION: The current coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic may result in shortages of health care workers in some areas of the health care system. With adequate support, nursing students could potentially play a role in easing health worker shortages. OBJECTIVE: To describe and explore nursing students’ willingness and confidence to contribute to the health care workforce during a pandemic. METHODS: A mixed-methods descriptive survey design was used to explore the perspectives of second-year nursing students at an Australian University. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analyzed using directed content analysis. RESULTS: A total of 280 nursing students were invited to complete the survey with a response rate of 32%. The majority of the participants showed moderate to high levels of willingness to volunteer in a pandemic. Of the participants, 50% reported slight confidence that their knowledge and skills would assist them during their volunteering. Reasons that influenced students’ willingness to volunteer included perception of lack of personal protective equipment, need for incentives, fear of transmitting infection to family members, barriers to volunteering, inadequate knowledge and skills to handle a pandemic situation, study and clinical placement arrangements, and disease hazardousness. CONCLUSION: Most nursing students have a level of willingness to volunteer but low confidence that their knowledge and skills would assist them while volunteering in pandemic situations. Universities and health care organizations can benefit from these findings by developing strategies to increase students’ willingness to volunteer, as well as their confidence in their knowledge and skills.