Table 3.

Characteristics of the reviewed studies.

Author (s)	Sample Size and Setting	Country of Study	Study Design	Measurement Tool	Main Findings
Deo et al. (2020) [10]	148 nursing students at Nobel college	Nepal	Cross-sectional, survey-based study	A digitalized structured questionnaire contained a total of 45 questions to assesssocio-demographic charcteristics, associative factors, DASS (Depression, anxiety, stress scale) and ISI (Insomnia Index Scale).	The study found out that the COVID-19 pandemic presents significant effects on nursing students in Nepal. Some of the COVID-19-related stressors among this population include the fear of delayed graduation.
Begam and Devi e (2020) [11]	244 nursing students in an online mode in three schools of nursing, Assam	India	Cross-sectional study	Google Form that contained Tool I for collecting sociodemographic data and Tool II for the Perceived Stress Scale (10) by Cohen Sheldon with 5-Point Likert Scale	The study found out that they had experienced moderate levels of stress due to COVID-19.
Masha’al et al. (2020) [12]	335 nursing students in an online platform through Jordan universities	Jordan	Mixed methods	Online survey in Google Forms that contained the students’ sociodemographic characteristics and the Higher Education Stress Inventory	According to this study, COVID-19 presents particularly stressful experiences for nursing students doing distance learning.
Fitzgerald and Konrad (2021) [5]	50 nursing students participating in a web-based platform	USA	Descriptive study	Web-based survey developed through Qualtrics Software to develop a checklist based on a 10-item anxiety Symptoms Checklist	The study sought to unearth the stress and anxiety experienced by nursing students during COVID-19, nursing students feeling anxious and overwhelmed from handling the academic workload and stress from a lack of PPE in the workplace.
Hussien et al. (2020) [13]	284 nursing students at the Faculty of Nursing, Zagazig University, Egypt, Faculty of Applied Medical Science, Taibah University, and Al-Ghad International Colleges, KSA	Saudi Arabia and Egypt	Descriptive cross-sectional design	Questionnaire with a sociodemographic datasheet, the Emotional Intelligence Scale, and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale	Hussein et al. (2020) study found out that emotional intelligence is an important coping strategy for nursing students in these two countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing the two sets of students, Saudi nursing students demonstrated higher levels of emotional intelligence than their Egyptian counterparts.
Begum (2020) [14]	124 nursing students participating in online research during lockdown	Saudi Arabia	Quantitative cross-sectional study	Adapted questionnaire from a Chinese study that detailed demographic variables of age and gender, and 15 knowledge-based, 10 attitude-based, and 5 practice-based questions	According to this study, Saudi nursing students have a satisfactory level of knowledge about COVID-19. In addition, these students also possessed a positive attitude towards the pandemic and the possibility of overcoming it.
Savitsky et al. (2020) [7]	244 nursing students at a nursing department during a national lockdown	Israel	Cross-sectional study	Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale that outlined a cut-off point of 10 for moderate anxiety and of 15 for severe anxiety levels	The study found that the most common coping mechanisms among nursing students during the pandemic were resilience, seeking information, mental disengagement, humor, and the use of spiritual support.
Zeynep (2020) [15]	316 nursing students at a university in the Eastern Black Sea region, Turkey	Turkey	Cross-sectional study	Personal information form Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale Stress Coping Strategies Scale	The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the overall performance of nursing students. Nevertheless, the study found that the participants were demonstrating moderate levels of anxiety.
Lovrić et al. (2020) [16]	33 nursing students at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health, Osijek	Croatia	Qualitative study	Online form with two major questions	All students were aware and concerned about the issues of misinformation on social media and the risky behavior of the population. Additionally, most of them were worried about getting infected and were concerned about their families’ well-beings. Therefore, they constantly applied protective measures. Moreover, the students understood their responsibility to the community and the importance and risks of the nursing profession. They also described negative experiences with public transportation and residing in the student dorm.
Gallego-Gomez et al. (2020) [17]	142 students at the Faculty of Nursing of the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM) located in Murcia, Spain	Spain	Observational	Student Stress Inventory–Stress Manifestations (SSI–SM) questionnaire with 19 items in a 5-point Likert-type score	The nursing students experienced an increase in stress levels during the lockdown. They also experienced family and financial problems during this period. Their main coping strategy was engaging in physical exercise.
Subedi et al. (2020) [18]	1116 nursing students at different nursing colleges in Nepal	Nepal	Descriptive cross-sectional online survey	Self-administered questionnaire in an online survey	Close to half of the teachers (42.3%) indicated that they witnessed disturbances to their online classes due to electricity issues. Moreover, 48.1% of them stated that they had challenges with internet access. Over half of the students polled (63.2%) stated that their online learning was affected by electricity and 63.6% had internet problems; only 64.4% of the students had internet access for their online classes.
Aslan and Pekince (2020) [19]	662 nursing students at Inonu, Kilis, and Bingol Universities	Turkey	Cross-sectional design	Information form and perceived stress scale	Stress was prevalent among many nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing students between the ages of 18 and 20 years and female students reported higher levels of stress. The study also found out that the most important stressors among these students included watching the news, worrying about the risk of infection, and the imposed curfew.
Kochuvilayil et al. (2020) [20]	99 Australian and 113 Indian nursing students at NSW and Kerala	Australia and India	Cross-sectional study a comparative study	Online survey prepared through Survey Monkey	Student nurses inevitably experience heightened anxiety.