Despite the number of studies that have tried to demonstrate that there is an association between previous falls and the fear of falling, the relationship between these two variables remains a matter of controversy. Our objective was to investigate whether the fear of falling is a cause of falls, a consequence, or both in community-dwelling adults aged ≥ 75 years old. A descriptive, longitudinal, prospective study was performed. A total of 640 individuals were interviewed between 2009 and 2011. Sociodemographic data, health status, history of falls and fear of falling were assessed at baseline and at 24 months. The prevalence of falls at baseline was 25% as opposed to 35.2% at 24 months. The prevalence of the fear of falling was 41.5% at baseline. Logistic regression analysis showed a significant association between a history of falls and the fear of falling. Other factors associated with the fear of falling were female gender, comorbidity, depressive symptoms, and disability. In total, 41.7% of the subjects who had reported a fear of falling at baseline had suffered at least one fall 24 months later. Unadjusted Cox regression analysis revealed that the fear of falling was a risk factor for falls. According to the final model adjusted for other covariates, the only reliable predictor was female gender. The Cox model stratified by gender failed to show a crude association between fear of falling and falls. A previous history of falls in the previous year was a good predictor of the fear of falling; but the fear of falling was a predictor of falls during follow-up only in the unadjusted model, pointing to strong gender turns out as an effect modifier of the association of FOF and subsequent falls. Nursing staff working in elderly care should not only routinely assess patients’ previous history of falls, but also evaluate their fear of falling and its associated factors.

The COVID‐19 crisis in Spain has exacerbated the shortage of nursing staff to respond to increasing healthcare demands. For this reason, nursing students were requested to collaborate voluntarily as auxiliary health staff. This emergency has led to mental health problems in health professionals, hence the relevance of coping techniques. The objectives of this study were to explore the experiences and emotional responses of final‐year nursing students who volunteered to carry out healthcare relief tasks during the peak of the COVID‐19 pandemic, and to identify the coping strategies they adopted to deal with this situation. A qualitative study was conducted in the constructivist paradigm. Purposive sampling was used, and twenty‐two students participated in semi‐structured interviews, which were then content‐analysed. The study is reported using the COREQ checklist. Five themes emerged in the ‘Experiences and emotional response’ dimension (context, patients, emotions and feelings, risk of contagion, and personal satisfaction), and three themes emerged in the ‘Coping strategies’ dimension strategies in the work environment, in daily life and personal life. Although the students expressed negative emotions due to the highly complex context and lack of professional experience, they evaluated the experience positively in terms of learning and usefulness. Most notably, the students employed adaptive coping strategies to deal with the pandemic.

In addition to complying with strict academic standards, nursing students must acquire relevant knowledge and skills, and learn how to carry themselves in different and often stressful professional settings. These obligations could severely affect their mental health. The purpose of this study was to examine the mental health status of undergraduate nursing students and related factors. A total of 1368 nursing students from different universities in Spain and Chile were included in this study, which took place over the 2018–2019 academic year. We assessed their levels of stress related to specific learning methodologies and determined their mental health status using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). The results revealed that the more advanced the course was, the lower the total GHQ-28 score. The stress generated by different types of training activities had a significant effect on the total GHQ-28 score. These results suggest that nursing education could act as a protective factor against mental health disorders. Although a heavy academic workload could lead to higher levels of stress, overall, it seems that mental health is better in more advanced courses than in initial academic years.