evaluating the effect of telenursing and multimedia self-care educational program on the level of existential anxiety in patients with covid-19: a quasi-experimental study

Background & objective: for patients, covid-19 disease is a reminder of non-existence and death. for this reason, these patients experience existential anxiety. one of the effective factors in the control and treatment of this disease is to educate patients on self-care to reduce the burden of these psychological problems on them. the present study was designed and conducted with the aim of evaluating the effect of self-care educational program using telemedicine and multimedia methods on the level of existential anxiety in covid-19 patients. materials & methods: this study was a quasi-experimental research conducted on 88 covid-19 patients referred to the comprehensive health service centers of bandar abbas, iran from 2020 to 2021. they were selected using a convenience sampling method. the samples were randomly assigned to the multimedia (44 patients) and telenursing (44 patients) groups. patients in both groups received education on self-care during covid-19 disease for 21 days. the existence anxiety scale was completed before and immediately after the intervention. data were analyzed with spss software version 26. descriptive statistics, normality test, independent t-test, homogeneity of variance and covariance, univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance were used. results: the mean score of existential anxiety at the beginning of the study was 90.50± 12.57 and 85.25 ±16.12, respectively, in the telenursing and multimedia groups, and after the intervention, it was 46.88 ± 6.38 and 65.40 ± 9.59, respectively, in the telenursing and multimedia groups. after the intervention, the existential anxiety score was significantly reduced in the telenursing group compared to the multimedia group (p <0.001). conclusions: based on the findings of this study, self-care education programs and knowledge about necessary care during covid-19 illness should be considered for patients in comprehensive health centers, and telenursing should be used for more effective self-care education.