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The strict nationwide Covid-19 lockdown that began in March 2020 in Aotearoa New Zealand required staff from tertiary education institutions to immediately adapt and move their teaching and professional activities online, as well as maintain social contact remotely. The aim of our study was to explore the impact of the lockdown and restrictions on working life and personal wellbeing for staff at five Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) across Te Pūkenga national network. Participants were invited to complete an online survey at five time points, corresponding to different alert levels and decreasing social restrictions. They responded to questions about changes to work and personal life, activities to maintain wellbeing, adequacy and trustworthiness of information sources, and provided qualitative comment. Overall, 2250 responses were collected from 1240 individuals over the five time points. They show that participants made higher levels of adjustments in their working lives than in their personal lives or their efforts to maintain social contact. Levels of adjustment decreased over time, despite an increase in alert level (increased social restrictions) in September 2020. Attention to wellbeing also dropped off over time, with an increasing proportion of staff becoming at risk of poor wellbeing (below the cut-off of the WHO-5 depression index). Qualitative comments show innovative and creative ways of maintaining wellbeing despite the requirements for considerable adjustments to participants’ daily working and personal lives.

This study examined the stresses and wellbeing of international postgraduate health and nursing students at a tertiary education institute in New Zealand who were mainly essential frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 lockdown. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected by purposeful sampling (n = 43). The study utilised a cross-sectional survey, along with the Short Form of Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), adapted for the COVID-19 lockdown, and followed by semi-structured individual interviews. This study is the first in New Zealand to demonstrate that, with a mean PSS-10 score of 21.7 (±7.1), international health students experienced higher than optimal levels of stress, with supporting qualitative data identifying four themes for the sources of stress: (1) familial relationships, (2) essential work, (3) finances, and (4) study. However, these students coped because of the extensive support provided by their education institute and employers. These students played a critical role in the pandemic’s response and made a significant public health contribution by working in the frontline of the COVID-19 outbreak. Considering the global shortage of healthcare workers and understanding the key challenges, means of coping and support provisions, as we have here, offer insights for building and maintaining a resilient and resourceful health workforce through international health and nursing students in New Zealand and elsewhere.