Changes in Clinical Training for Nursing Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

Abstract

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has cost social, economic, cultural, and educational life, distressing nursing training and practice. This study aimed to map the literature on changes in clinical training for nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2) Methods: A scoping review was conducted according to JBI methodology’s latest guidance. A set of relevant electronic databases and grey literature was searched to report results published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. (3) Results: A total of 12 studies were included in the study, addressing changes in clinical training in undergraduate nursing students due to COVID-19 pandemic activity, published between 2020 and 2022. (4) Conclusions: Nursing schools made an effort to replace traditional clinical training with several activities, primarily based on simulation or virtual activities. However, contact with others is essential, and simulation programs or scenarios cannot provide it.

The Reasons for Unfinished Nursing Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrative Review

“…These new reasons for UNC coincide with the main challenges that nurses have faced in this period in dealing with the emergency and managing changes. The high intentional turnover (moving nurses from one department to another in urgent situations) has made it difficult to ensure the appropriate training; on the other hand, limiting the clinical rotations [ 31 ] due to the pandemic may have prevented the development of competence during nursing education. Universities should refocus their education and priorities, and hospitals must identify adequate introductory plans, designing one for routine times and a second one for dealing with crises/disasters.…”

Innovative strategies of an education community in response to a crisis situation

“…Similarly, several studies concluded that the pandemic promoted changes in curriculum content and platforms and identified some needs that needed to be addressed (Ahmed et al, 2020;Goh & Sanders, 2020;Shehata et al, 2020). A scoping review by Lobão et al (2023) to map changes in clinical training for nursing students during the pandemic, which included 12 studies, concluded that nursing schools were making efforts to replace traditional clinical training with different activities using simulation or virtual activities, but that contact with others was essential.…”