The Lived Experience of Nursing Students Learning Remotely and Transitioning to Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Christian Dumol

Peacock Scholarship

The Lived Experience of Nursing Students Learning Remotely and Transitioning to Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Public Deposited

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to the suspension of in-person classes across the globe. As a result, the nursing schools in the United States altered their method of instruction from face-to-face to remote learning, including the in-person clinical rotations and NCLEX-RN preparation for the graduating nursing students. Objective: This qualitative research study explores the lived experience of the registered nurses who prepared for their NCLEX-RN and transitioned into professional nursing practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research and Methods: The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with seven registered nurses privately through phone calls, Google Meet, or Zoom meetings through the snowball technique. In addition, the researcher used ATLAS.ti to analyze all interview transcripts. Results: Three major themes emerged from this study: concerns regarding social isolation, lack of hands-on experience, and difficult transition to hospital practice. the researcher gathered mixed responses regarding their preparation for the NCLEX-RN, with three of them arguing that remote learning had a negative impact, three discussing otherwise, and one having mixed feelings. Five out of seven participants explicitly stated their problems regarding social isolation due to lack of interaction. In addition, they all expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of hands-on experience since the clinical rotations were suspended. Lastly, five out of seven participants explained having difficulty transitioning to hospital practice. Additional concerns were directed toward anxiety and lack of confidence, resulting from their perceptions and experiences. Conclusion: The consensus from this research study is that the participants' negative lived experience outweighed the positive ones, which inevitably led to feelings of doubt, frustration, loneliness, and uncertainty. Further research is necessary to understand the full-scale impact of the pandemic, especially in the field of nursing and nursing education.

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