Aim This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and willingness of nursing students to receive the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine and the influencing factors. Background Vaccination is one of the most effective measures to prevent COVID-19, but the vaccination acceptance rate varies across countries and populations. As trustworthy healthcare providers, nursing students’ attitudes, knowledge and willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine may greatly affect the present and future vaccine acceptance rates of the population; however, studies related to the vaccine acceptance rates among nursing students are limited. Methods A convenience sampling method was adopted to select two medical universities in China. Following the cluster sampling method, nursing college students who were eligible for the study were selected. A cross-sectional survey was conducted by asking nursing students to complete an online questionnaire from February to April 2021. Descriptive statistics, t tests/one-way analysis of variance (normal distribution), U tests/H tests (skewness distribution) and multivariate linear regression were performed. Results A total of 1,488 valid questionnaires were collected. The score rates of the attitude, knowledge and vaccination willingness dimensions were 70.07%, 80.70% and 84.38%, respectively. Attitude was significantly influenced by family economic conditions and vaccination status of family members. The main factors influencing knowledge were gender, grade and academic background. In terms of willingness, sex, academic background, visits to high-risk areas, vaccination status of family members and the side effects experienced after receiving other vaccines were significant influencing factors. Conclusions Nursing students showed satisfactory vaccine acceptance rates. However, more attention should be paid to male students, younger students, those with a medical background, those with low grades and those whose family members had not received the COVID-19 vaccine or had side effects from the vaccine.

. The outbreak of COVID-19 quickly spread to 184 countries and regions around the world. It has drawn great attention from the WHO and was declared an international public health emergency on January 31, 2020. Because the population is generally susceptible to the virus, there are no effective drugs and vaccines, and active participation of the entire population in self-protection and self-isolation has become the key to cutting off transmission routes and effectively controlling the epidemic. A self-designed questionnaire to assess residents’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to COVID-19 prevention and control used the Questionnaire Star service platform, and snowball sampling was used to invite rural residents to complete the questionnaire on WeChat. A total of 554 valid questionnaires were collected. Rural residents’ average scores on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding prevention and control were 40 ± 7 (total of 50 points), 45 ± 3 (total of 52 points), and 92 ± 12 (total of 127 points), respectively. A lack of protective materials and weak awareness of prevention and control are the greatest difficulties and challenges experienced by rural residents during the epidemic. Accordingly, social support services, such as public transportation plans, supply chains for living materials, and orderly returns to work, need to be strengthened. Moreover, new infectious disease control is not only a task for individuals but also a global issue. It is of great significance to guarantee information transparency and enhance health risk communication.

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