The effect of nomophobia levels on nursing students' depression, anxiety and stress levels

RATIONALE: Nomophobia becoming widespread can have negative effects on the psychology of nursing students, who are the nurses of the future. Yet, the psychological well-being of the nursing group dealing with human health is essential for psychologically supporting the individuals they care for and reducing the potential for errors in nursing care. Therefore, it is necessary to determine nomophobia in nursing students and examine its relationship with psychological states. AIMS: This research was conducted to determine the effect of nomophobia levels on depression, anxiety and stress levels of nursing students. METHOD: The descriptive and correlational research was completed with 544 nursing students. Data were collected using the Data Collection Form, Nomophobia Scale, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and analysed using descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk, Spearman, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The students' mean age was 21.10 ± 1.32. Their mean nomophobia score was 102.51 ± 27.06. 65.6% had depression, 66.2% had anxiety, and 35.8% had stress at different levels. A relationship was found between the students' nomophobia mean scores and their depression, anxiety and stress subscale scores (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The students' nomophobia levels were high. As students' nomophobia levels increased, their depression, anxiety and stress levels increased. Our recommendation is to inform nurses about nomophobia, support conscious phone use, and direct students affected by nomophobia to relevant units. Our recommendation is to inform nursing students about nomophobia, direct students affected by nomophobia to relevant units, and support their participation in activities that will raise awareness among students.