Nursing Educators' Experiences of Clinical Internships during Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19): A Qualitative Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the clinical training of nursing students. Because the quality improvement of nursing clinical training, in which nursing educators play a major role, requires the continuous monitoring of the status quo, this study aimed to explore the nursing educators' experiences of clinical internships during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This descriptive qualitative study was conducted in 2021 in Tehran, Iran. Participants (n = 10) were faculty members of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and were training nursing students in medical-surgical wards in educational hospitals. Data were collected from November 2021 to January 2022 through deep, semi-structured, and face-to-face interviews until data saturation by nurse researchers and were analyzed by the Graneheim and Lundman (2004) method.

Analysis revealed five main categories including "fear of coronavirus disease," "increased attention to health protocols," "educational challenges," "shortage of personal protective equipment" and "adaptation to pandemic conditions."

These findings showed nursing educators face many problems in teaching clinical skills to students during the COVID-19 pandemic; so, health policymakers should put policies that can manage this crisis in future occurrences. In educational curricula, critical conditions affecting the quality of student's education should be taken into consideration to reduce obstacles.