Student nurses and educators’ experiences of clinical teaching and learning during COVID-19 pandemic in selected campuses of Gauteng College of Nursing

Abstract

Background The Corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which was first reported in Wuhan in December 2019, spread to other countries in the world, including South Africa. When the infections were very high, different stages of national lockdown were put in place, to curb the rapid spread of the infection. All education institutions were closed, including Nursing Education Institutions for both theory and clinical practice. Student nurses could not practice for three months of level five lockdown. Once the infections started to subside, student nurses went back to clinical areas and some students cared for patients with COVID-19 disease, with no knowledge or adequate protection from the disease. Aim The study aimed to explore student nurses’ and educators’ experiences of clinical teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in selected campuses of the Gauteng College of Nursing. Methods A descriptive qualitative design was used to conduct face-to-face individual interviews with 15 purposively selected student nurses who were in their fourth-year of the R425 training programme and four clinical educators. Findings Three themes and 16 subthemes emerged. The themes were: clinical experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical teaching and learning during COVID-19 pandemic, and coping strategies that can be used in future pandemics or similar crises. Conclusion The findings from this study indicate that teaching and learning were very challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the restrictive policies that were imposed in the country affecting nurse training and education.