Students Perspective of Clinical Online Training During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Purpose: COVID-19 pandemic induced an international alarm leading to a sudden transition to online learning, teaching. Clinical training in nursing has an important role to develop nursing students’ skills, knowledge, and attitudes; but online learning was seen by students a challenging experience which compelled them to accept it for the sake of learning continuity. This study aimed to explored students’ perspective of clinical online training during COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: A mixed method research design, combining an explorative quantitative and phenomenological qualitative design was used with 21 nursing students, who participated in a questionnaire survey and an interview. Colaizzi’s approach was used to analyze the interviews. Findings and Results: Data analysis yielded four themes: (a) Missing the real world of the clinical area; (b) falling into the dark side of the experience; (c) losing the confidence to be a competent nurse; and (d) the need for supporting hand.  Implications to theory and practice: This study reiterated that clinical training was vital for nursing students and raised concern over the transition to online learning methods and challenges faced from students’ perspective. The result of this study could be used as baseline data for nursing educators when planning clinical online education whether its duo to pandemic problems or other circumstances.