A study to assess the prevalence of nomophobia among nursing students in Kollam

Abstract

Introduction: Nomophobia is an emerging human behavior stemming from widespread mobile phone use. Discovering the prevalence of nomophobia among nursing students is important as the use of smartphone in clinical practice may cause distraction affecting the quality of care and putting patients' safety at risk. Furthermore, it can lead to poorer academic performance. Materials and Methods: Quantitative approach with descriptive cross-sessional design was used in this study. The study was conducted in Bishop Benziger College of Nursing, Upasana College of Nursing, VNSS College of Nursing, and Holy Cross College of Nursing, Kollam, Kerala. The target populations were BSc nursing students. The purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data. Formal permission was taken by the institutional ethics committee and consent from the nursing students and data were collected through Google Forms. The tools used consisted of Demographics Pro forma and Standardized Nomophobia Questionnaire which is 7-point self-reporting questionnaire (not at all nomophobia, mild nomophobia, moderate nomophobia, and severe nomophobia). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The mean age of the participants was 21 years. More than 50% of nursing students use smartphone for about 5 h daily. Totally, 42% of nursing students having the habit of checking their smartphone <10 times/day. Nursing students affected by severe nomophobia were very minimal that were only 2%. (moderate 33%, mild 54%, and no nomophobia 11%). The prevalence rate of nomophobia among nursing students was 34.84. Significant association was found between nomophobia among nursing students and demographic variables such as level of study, smartphone use duration, frequency of checking phones, and frequency of checking phone episodes at 0.05 level. Conclusion: Smartphone addiction is a growing phenomenon in the current world. Online classes are influencing the duration of smartphone use. More than 50% of the private college nursing students are having mild nomophobia.