Health as expanding consciousness: Change of psychological situation in nursing students

AIM: This study aims to explore the mind of Chinese nursing students transitioning to online education in the pandemic using health as expanding consciousness (HEC) as methodology. DESIGN: A qualitative, descriptive study based on interviews. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted from September to November 2021 by students in the Guangzhou university of Chinese medicine. Thirteen participants were recruited using purposive sampling. A questionnaire containing two sections with demographic information, the General Self‐Efficacy Scale (GSES) and the Connor‐Davidson resilience scale (CD‐RISC)‐10 was collected to explore the health of participants. RESULTS: A total of 13 participants were enrolled in the study (69% female). Students ranged in age between 19 and 24 years and the mean age was 22 years. All students lived with their families. Five participants (38%) had a master's degree in nursing, three (23%) were in fourth year of college, four (30%) were in third year of college and one (7%) was in their second year of college respectively. More than half of the participants had high levels of mental toughness and self‐efficacy. Four generic categories were identified form a unitary‐transformative paradigm perspective. The respondents reported three health pattern phases: Curriculum Transformation, Curriculum adaptation and Curriculum expansion. CONCLUSION: This research backs up Newman's hypothesis, and supports the theoretical framework. HEC explains well the psychology of nursing students during the epidemic. More research is needed in the future to develop comprehensive, targeted emotional regulation therapies for nursing students.