Clinical nursing education during the COVID-19 pandemic: perspectives of students and clinical educators

Abstract

Background The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has thus far disrupted clinical nursing education (CNE) around the world and in Iran; which has encountered numerous challenges to this point for students and clinical educators. Therefore, this qualitative study was conducted to identify the perspectives of nursing students and clinical educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods In this qualitative descriptive study, 15 participants, including nursing students and clinical educators, were selected through the purposive sampling method. The data were collected from March to September 2021 in nursing school through in-depth semi-structured interviews, and then analyzed based on the Graneheim and Lundman method. Results Two main themes, “CNE in the shadows of threats and opportunities” and “CNE recovery” and five themes (Injured CNE, CNE under fear, Lessons from the COVID-19 crisis, Providing optimal CNE by eradicating COVID-19, and Adapting CNE to existing conditions) were extracted from the data analysis. Conclusions The results of this qualitative study demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic had led the participants to experience new conditions, also referred to as “combined threats and opportunities”. Based on this, nursing managers and planners are advised to take great steps towards the development and improvement of CNE by considering and applying these results in their plans to overcome the challenge of CNE with effective and useful actions in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The long‐term impact of COVID‐19 on nursing: An e‐panel discussion from the International Network for Child and Family Centred Care

“…This created uncertainty and creativity in the form of new clinical opportunities. These findings have been cited in international literature and not only highlight the adaptability and responsiveness of nursing as a profession (Agu et al, 2021;Kaveh et al, 2022;Tomietto et al, 2020) but also challenge us to consider distance learning and a blended approach as well as other innovations to teaching as the future in nursing education. The e-panellists described both positive and negative impacts on research activities in terms of opportunities for new methods of research and also the negative impact on workload, career intentions and mental health (Finn et al, 2022;Lokhtina et al, 2022).…”

Barriers to Learning Healthcare-Associated Infections Prevention and Control during Clinical Practicum among Nursing Students in Korea: A Focus Group Study

“…Firstly, regardless of the pandemic status, the students experienced that they had limited opportunities to practice HAI control and prevention in clinical units. In Korea, students were not only prohibited from entering COVID-19 isolation rooms, but they also had minimal contact with patients with infections such as MRSA, tuberculosis, CDI, and HIV during their med-surg clinical rotations, as stated in previous studies [17,20]. Restricting students from contact with patients with infections compelled them to choose patients with non-communicable diseases as their patient of the day for their case study assignments, further reducing their learning opportunities for HAI control [20].…”

“…Given that, nursing students' practice of HAI prevention and control is influenced by their knowledge foundation [28], it is important to educate them about the specific components of standard precautions. Additionally, the loss of knowledge learned in the earlier years of nursing schools, by the time students begin clinical practicum in the third year [10,17], could be addressed by repeated education, such as refresher seminars every six months [28]. This would help them to retain their knowledge and, in turn, might drive their practical competencies.…”

“…As students provide nursing interventions in a limited time window in an emergency, they forget safety precautions and infection prevention protocol. However, providing repeated education using realistic emergency or common scenarios could equip students with such competencies [17]. Simulation-based training [30], which offers the benefit of learning nursing skills in a scenario consisting of various case modules in a realistic and interactive setting, may be an effective option for bolstering students' HAI prevention and control competencies.…”

“…Past qualitative studies on HAI prevention and control among nursing students explored their overall experiences in patient care in COVID-19 care units [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] or their experiences in adapting to clinical practicum during the COVID-19 pandemic [20,21]. As these studies present only the general experiences of nursing students in the unique COVID-19 situation, it is necessary to investigate the barriers to learning HAI prevention and control during clinical practicum to propose the direction of education on this topic.…”