Citation: Jagroop-Dearing, A.; Leonard, G.; Shahid, S.M.; van Dulm, O. COVID-19 Lockdown in New Zealand: Perceived Stress and Wellbeing among International Health Students Who Were Essential Frontline Workers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 9688. https:// doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159688 Academic Editors: Zhengchao Dong, Juan Manuel Gorriz and Yudong Zhang Received: 23 June 2022 Accepted: 1 August 2022 Published: 6 August 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Article COVID-19 Lockdown in New Zealand: Perceived Stress and Wellbeing among International Health Students Who Were Essential Frontline Workers Anita Jagroop-Dearing 1, * , Griffin Leonard 2 , Syed M. Shahid 3 and Ondene van Dulm 1 1 School of Health and Sport Science, Eastern Institute of Technology, Taradale Campus, 501 Gloucester Street, Hawkes Bay 4112, New Zealand 2 K¯ ohatu Centre for Hauora M¯ aori, Otago Medical School, University of Otago, Frederick Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand 3 School of Health and Sport Science, Eastern Institute of Technology, Auckland Campus, 238 Queen Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand * Correspondence: ajagroopdearing@eit.ac.nz Abstract: 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. Keywords: COVID-19; perceived stress; wellbeing; international nursing and health students; essential frontline workers; New Zealand 1. Introduction The COVID-19 virus has spread across the globe, causing the most detrimental pan- demic of the last century. The World Health Organisation (WHO) officially determined the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic on 11 March 2020, and globally, it has infected more than 565 million people and caused more than 6 million deaths worldwide [1]. The spread of the virus and public health measures taken to combat its spread have radically changed international travel, workplace practices, and people’s ability to gather socially [2]. An ever-growing body of literature aims to understand the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of health and wellbeing [3,4] (Dhama et al., 2020; Szcze´ sniak et al., 2021) and the restrictions imposed in order to reduce or eliminate it [5,6]. Globally, there was a shortage of nurses and essential healthcare workers who, at the peak of the outbreak, became new heroes [7]. New Zealand was considered a shining example to the rest of the world in the way the COVID-19 outbreak was managed. We adopted a ‘go hard and go early’ approach and was one of the first countries to introduce a comprehensive nationwide alert level system. An Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 9688. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159688 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph