Exploring the Effect of COVID-19 on Graduate Nursing Education

Abstract

Graduate nursing students are both nurses and adult learners. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many found themselves working on the frontlines while maintaining their studies and confronting challenges in their professional, educational, and personal lives. Changes in work environments, including redeployments, increased hours, and furloughs, challenged their work–study balance. The rapid pivot to virtual instruction allowed graduate nursing students to continue their coursework, but asynchronous delivery of course content increased their isolation and stress. Academic institutions supported graduate nursing students through innovations such as regular town hall meetings and flexible attendance policies, while the widespread closure of clinical learning sites became one of their biggest challenges. A minimum of 500 hours of supervised direct patient care is required to prepare a student to practice as a nurse practitioner, but there is no formal, financed clinical placement system for nurse practitioner students—leaving this clinical learning requirement particularly vulnerable to disruption during the pandemic. Some of the clinical learning alternatives employed included occupational health work, tele-precepting, and simulation. Since telehealth will be a part of the future of health care delivery, tele-precepting practices should be further developed, but simulation was underused and not an acceptable replacement for supervised direct patient care. A postpandemic future needs to limit gaps in the development of safe, competent health care providers by viewing graduate nursing students as essential workers and ensuring their access to the robust didactic and clinical learning opportunities that will best position them as leaders in health care.

Virtual Practical Examination for Student Nurse Educators in Health Sciences Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Narrative Review

“…Moreover, conducting practical examinations is a challenging aspect during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, virtual-based practical assessment sessions can help teachers to conduct practical examinations effectively [ 65 ]. Practical examinations have a role in protecting patients [ 66 ] and it is important to continue their delivery via innovative methods of measuring the same knowledge, understanding, and capabilities with amended assessments such using video conferencing platforms to conduct vivas [ 66 ].Additionally, problems with internet connection and other technical aspects, the attitudes of teachers, limited interpersonal relations, limited learning of practical skills, health concerns, students’ engagement and distractions during assessment [ 49 , 56 , 67 , 68 ] were reported to be worrying factors. The use of virtual practical examination requires abundant preparation on the part of both student nurse educators and the facilitators.…”

Student Nurses as Modern Digital Nomads: Developing Nursing Skills Competence and Confidence through Video-Based Learning

“…However, the current situation posed a challenge to maximizing their learning because of these pandemic-related restrictions. It is then imperative for nursing educators to utilize various pedagogical approaches to facilitate students' engagement in the learning process during this critical time [20,21] .…”

Nurse Faculty Provide Essential Support to Graduate Nursing Students During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Graduate nursing students are unique in that most work as registered nurses while in graduate school. 29 These students are in a variety of roles ranging from direct care providers to holding leadership positions.…”