Pain, anxiety and depressive symptoms in nursing students

• Grant number: 19/23329-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2020
• End date: May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Nursing - Psychiatric Nursing
• Principal Investigator: Priscilla Hortense
• Grantee: Luiz Paulo Miotto
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Chronic pain has reached epidemic levels, affects people of various ages and is an extremely important symptom. At higher levels it can cause changes in mood and interpersonal relationships, and for its treatment, thorough evaluation is needed to identify what may be helpful for treatment and what may be harmful to it. Pain can also cause psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety, which should also be evaluated. Students and nursing professionals commonly develop pain, anxiety and / or depression throughout their lives, starting at undergraduate level and leading them to self-medication. While students face a lack of cognitive and emotional resources, professionals deal with exhaustive workloads, triggering factors of this symptomatology. These factors may be harmful and require that preventive and auxiliary measures be developed to reduce the involvement of these pathologies. Objective: To analyze the prevalence of chronic pain, anxiety and depressive symptoms in undergraduate nursing students, as well as their pain intensity levels, their sociodemographic levels and to analyze and compare the association between pain, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Methodology: Exploratory, cross-sectional, analytical study, using the quantitative method of investigation, with a project submitted to the UFSCar Human Research Ethics Committee, which will use the Initial Questionnaire for Sociodemographic Characterization, the Numerical Pain Intensity Scale. with body map, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The study will be conducted at a university in the interior of the state of São Paulo, with approximately 150 undergraduate nursing students.