Abstract:
Background: COVID-19 pandemic affected almost all aspects of life of people in the world.
While the world was facing the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, undergraduates were badly
affected at their core. For them, the period was undoubtedly very stressful and tight situation.
However, undergraduates can focus on good things and try to come up from bad situation.
Objectives: To study the positive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Allied Health
Sciences (AHS) undergraduates of at the University of Ruhuna (UoR).
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among AHS undergraduates of the
UoR (n=240), using an online self-administered questionnaire. Students who volunteered to
participate in the study were included to represent equal numbers from Nursing, Pharmacy and
Medical Laboratory Science departments. Students were randomly selected from each
department (n=80) by using students name lists to represent 1
st, 2nd, 3rd and 4
th academic years.
Results: Of the sample, 66.7% were female and the majority (90.0%) agreed that they have
experienced both negative and positive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of
the participants got the opportunity to spend time mostly inside their homes (n=231, 96.3%), for
studies (54.2%), with family members (n=232, 96.7%), for religious works (n=147, 61.3%) and
for exercises (n=162, 67.5%) during the pandemic than earlier. Many have started new activities
such as reading books (n=159, 66%), writing poems (n=61, 25%), gardening (n=139, 58%),
cooking (n=178, 74%), meditation (n=74, 31%), exercises (n=127, 53%) and learning a new
language (n=127, 49%) and some new spiritual activities [helping neighbours (n=141, 59%),
helping poor (n=86, 36%), donating to COVID-19 funds (n=61, 25%)]. The majority (n=215,
89.6%) were satisfied with online lectures and had followed different online teaching methods.
Government, universities, and banks have extended some important support for undergraduates
during the pandemic. Undergraduates had improved their hygienic behaviours and routine
habits. Of the participants, 59.2% mentioned that due to these hygienic practices, the frequency
of getting infectious diseases was reduced during the pandemic.
Conclusions: COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in positive impacts on the undergraduates of
the UoR with respect to their lifestyle, education, economy, health and well-being. It is
important to put a positive spin on all experiences, even those are profoundly tragic.
