The COVID-19 Pandemic while Creating Learning Obstacles has Resulted in Astute, Compassionate and Expert Modern Day Nurse Florence Nightingale Graduates

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Undergraduate nursing students forced into lockdown, stay at home measures and mask wearing, discovered a challenging altered learning environment. Ghana is a technologically deprived country so adaption to learning during a COVID-19 pandemic was technologically difficult. In Ghana, connectivity and Internet access, as well as residence location may have impact on learning outcomes. In Asia and India, Internet connectivity may also pose difficulties related to issues such as frequent Internet outages and difficulty typing on a phone. If you consider Australia, online accessibility maybe superior, yet lockdowns resulting in closure of labs with less simulation practical sessions and adaption to online home virtual learning may still pose challenges. Also, practical placements within a hospital resulted in additional donning and doffing of personal protective equipment [PPE]. This manuscript objective is to investigate these challenges further in more detail mentioning research conducted in Australia, Africa, India and Asia. Methods: The MeSH browser was utilised with MeSH search terms; ("Education, Nursing"[Mesh]) AND "Australia"[Mesh]. Relevant articles from Ghana, Asia and India were also sourced. In addition, filters were applied to select articles in the last year. Results: Twenty-two manuscript results with the first search were retrieved. Various of these related to the pandemic impact on the University closures, student’s placements, lectures and simulation laboratories. Conclusions: Developing clinical work skills is essential. Restricted placement opportunities resulted in rapidly changing practice requirements. Various implications arose from simulation lab closures, the change to virtual online learning, and stress related to the increased time and effort in utilising PPE equipment and concerns about disease transfer. Undergraduate students training during the pandemic developed more practical hands-on experience about infectious diseases and the implications.