TY - JOUR T1 - Impact of COVID-19 on nursing students: what does the evidence tell us? JF - Evidence Based Nursing JO - Evid Based Nurs SP - 37 LP - 38 DO - 10.1136/ebnurs-2022-103533 VL - 25 IS - 2 AU - David Barrett Y1 - 2022/04/01 UR - http://ebn.bmj.com/content/25/2/37.abstract N2 - A previous EBN editorial discussed the role of universities in supporting the mental health and well-being of nursing students.1 This editorial was published in February 2020, so was written with little or no idea of the extraordinary challenges that were soon to confront society and healthcare providers as the COVID-19 pandemic spread.The earlier editorial highlighted that even in pre-pandemic times, the pressures on nursing students were substantial; a mixture of academic expectation, assessment of practice competence and personal commitments, resulting in high prevalence of stress and anxiety.2 Since early 2020 though, the pandemic has magnified these pressures on nursing students across the globe.The importance of this issue was highlighted in a systematic review that explored the prevalence of mental health problems and sleep disturbance among nursing students during the pandemic.3 The review suggested that over a quarter of respondents were experiencing sleep disturbances, nearly one-third were feeling stress or anxiety, and more than half reported suffering from depression. This review, and others, have highlighted -the substantial impact that the pandemic has had on nursing students, but what does the evidence tell us about why this group has been hit so hard?There are few members of society who have been untouched by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have lost loved ones; many have suffered ill-health (and many continue to do so as a result of long COVID-19); most have lived with societal restrictions and uncertainty about the future. However, the evidence suggests that nursing students are a group upon whom COVID-19 has … ER -