How COVID-19 Has Affected Nursing and Education Essay

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the guidelines set to curb its spread has changed the usual way of operation in most aspects of life. The nursing fraternity-like other professions have also been primarily affected. Because these are front raw workers, COVID-19 has significantly had more significant effects than on other careers. Stakeholders in nursing education have changed the way nursing education is conducted in schools to an approach that is parallel and effective in the changing times. Nursing education has been temporally suspended in most institutions as a safety measure. In-person learning has been changed to remote learning using appropriate online teaching tools. Even nursing care routines have changed, and the direct close contact between nurses and patients previously familiar has been discouraged. Although COVID-19 vaccines have been developed, nurses have remained vigilant about communicable diseases and maintained the recommended measures to avoid the spread.

Keywords: affected, COVID-19, nursing, nursing education, traumatic disorders

Introduction

Nurses and student nurses have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and while most effects have been adverse, some excellent outcomes have accrued to the nursing profession. Before the pandemic, most caregivers were careless and often overlooked safety protocols. Now nurses are more careful about their safety, and the strain they have faced during this period has led to increased stamina. However, since nursing is people-oriented, some nurses have faced traumatic disorders by witnessing many of their patients’ great suffering. This trauma has necessitated counseling and psychotherapy sessions for these front-line employees. Student nurses have also had to endure a challenging period as they contemplate when their lives are back to normal. The pandemic has had a significant impact on nursing and nursing education; however, the professionals have operated under strict regulations to manage the situation.

How COVID-19 has Affected Nursing

The effects of COVID-19 on various aspects of life and occupations have been extensively studied and documented in the past two years. This study has been catalyzed by the fact that the pandemic is not only a global health emergency but also a significant economic downturn (Bora & Basistha, 2021). Nonetheless, health professionals are arguably the worst affected because of their work directly interlinked with the outbreak. Actions that have been taken to help flatten the curve have had an unprecedented impact on nurses and nursing students (Fowler & Wholeben, 2020). Nurses have persevered to live in the hospitals as the government has authorized all people with direct contact with the COVID-19 victims to self-isolate. This closure has affected nursing students, too, most of whom have developed traumatic problems due to seeing their well-planned schedules re-arranged. Others have taken the opportunity well and channeled their free time into more productive activities and hobbies. Scholars and researchers have not ignored all these adverse effects, and many have demonstrated that COVID-19 has affected various aspects of life and nursing in one way or another.

Nursing as a profession has been in the spotlight since the pandemic started and thus enjoyed increased benefits in funding to cater to their unique needs. Further, like other organizations, the medical community has seen a change in many elements of the business process, including the use of technology to maintain their operations while maintaining new guidelines and procedures (Dwivedi et al., 2020). Before the pandemic, nurses often performed their work without protective equipment, a risky action (Bagnasco et al., 2020). However, as Arcadi et al. (2021) have recently proved, the fear of infection has made many nurses adhere to set procedures. Tichavová et al. (2022) have shown that the negative perception of online learning that some people, especially students, had on online education changed in the wake of the pandemic. The pandemic has also demonstrated how the caregivers are essential to maintaining public health hence more appreciation than before.

The experiences nurses had and the coping strategies adopted by medical practitioners and policymakers affected how the field is run. Literature shows that nurses have played a crucial role in response to the pandemic, including mitigation, preventing, counseling, and acting as a hook between patients and the outside world (Buheji & Buhaid, 2020). The roles nurses have played, the challenges they have faced, and the achievements they have witnessed have changed the scope of the occupation and will remain so forever in the future. Previous studies show that the courage and resilience of nurses and doctors grew during the pandemic and are likely to remain (Buheji & Buhaid., 2020; Legido-Quigley et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2020). However, there have also been negative implications that the nurses have had to endure due to the COVID-19 restriction. Interviews also indicate that nurses have been filled with fear, helplessness, and inadequacy as the number of patients increases (Arcadi et al., 2021). Coping strategies adopted by the nursing fraternity have seen a change in nursing attitudes, and nurses have become more self-aware due to the pandemic (Lee et al., 2019). Nursing management has also implemented measures to ensure safety and a smooth work environment for the nurses in these challenging times.

How COVID-19 has Affected Nursing Education

When an unknown type of pneumonia outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China, in 2019, few people and even fewer governments took notice. However, by February of the following year, when all discovered the severity of the matter, strict, harsh measures were taken in what most governments referred to as flattening the curve protocols. These measures disrupted many aspects of life, especially education, where nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 200 countries saw their education altered (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021). Students who were lucky enough to have access to E-learning tools advantage of them facilitate their learning during the closure of the universities and schools (Subedi et al., 2020). Nonetheless, the suspension of clinical teachings and experience in the natural healthcare environment has negatively affected students’ readiness for licensure examinations (Agu et al., 2021). The Texas Board of Nursing (2020) decided that since some nursing skills were not obtainable through online nursing, the students would have to wait until further to gain these skills in in-person learning. The argument from the board was that licencing the students before passing some of the practical papers would result less qualified nurses being released to hospitals. These kinds of decisions also leave students without the idea of when they will complete their studies, further compounding their stress. Most nursing students lack ready and proximal access to counseling resources; hence, some may be suicidal.

Conclusion

The pandemic has had a massive effect on nursing and nursing education. As literature has shown, the nurses’ strain has influenced their work more positively than negatively. One of the positive impacts is that the government officials have been forced to look back to the hospitals and allocate extra budget allocations to cater to the need of nurses and other affected people. Despite enduring difficulties, they have been able to persevere and conduct their work while observing strict safety regulations set by policymakers. Nevertheless, the policy of quarantining themselves has been too much for these caregivers, and many of them are fighting traumatic disorders. Nursing students have been forced to alter their usual way of learning, and they too have persevered by adopting online learning. However, the skills they have obtained learning online are not as concrete as those obtained in in-person training where visiting medical institutions is familiar. The students, like nurses, have also experimented with increased stress levels due to anxiety and uncertainty about when they will complete their education.

References

Agu, C. F., Stewart, J., McFarlane‐Stewart, N., & Rae, T. (2021). COVID‐19 pandemic effects on nursing education: Looking through the lens of a developing country.International Nursing Review, 68(2). Web.

Arcadi, P., Simonetti, V., Ambrosca, R., Cicolini, G., Simeone, S., Pucciarelli, G., Alvaro, R., Vellone, E., & Durante, A. (2021). Nursing during the COVID‐19 outbreak: A phenomenological study. Journal of Nursing Management, 29(5), 1111–1119. Web.

Bagnasco, A., Zanini, M., Hayter, M., Catania, G. and Sasso, L. (2020). COVID 19—A message from Italy to the global nursing community. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 76(9), 2212–2214.

Bora, D., & Basistha, D. (2021). The outbreak of COVID‐19 pandemic and its impact on stock market volatility: Evidence from a worst‐affected economy. Journal of Public Affairs. Web.

Buheji, M., & Buhaid, N. (2020). Nursing human factor during COVID-19 pandemic.International Journal of Nursing Science, 10(1), 12–24. Web.

Dwivedi, Y. K., Hughes, D. L., Coombs, C., Constantiou, I., Duan, Y., Edwards, J. S., Gupta, B., Lal, B., Misra, S., Prashant, P., Raman, R., Rana, N. P., Sharma, S. K., & Upadhyay, N. (2020). Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on information management research and practice: Transforming education, work, and life.International Journal of Information Management, 55(102211), 102211. Web.

Fowler, K., & Wholeben, M. (2020). COVID-19: Outcomes for trauma-impacted nurses and nursing students.Nurse Education Today, 93, 104525. Web.

Lee, T. S.-H., Tzeng, W.-C., & Chiang, H.-H. (2019). Impact of coping strategies on nurses’ well-being and practice. Journal of Nursing Scholarship: An Official Publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, 51(2), 195–204. Web.

Legido-Quigley, H., Mateos-García, J. T., Campos, V. R., Gea-Sánchez, M., Muntaner, C., & McKee, M. (2020).The Lancet Public Health, 5(5). Web.

Liu, Q., Luo, D., Haase, J.E., Guo, Q., Wang, X.Q., Liu, S., Xia, L., Liu, Z., Yang, J., & Yang, B.X. (2020). The experiences of healthcare providers during the COVID-19 crisis in China: A qualitative study. The Lancet Global Health, 8(6), pp. e790–e798. Web.

Pokhrel, S., & Chhetri, R. (2021). A literature review on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning. Higher Education for the Future, 8(1), 234763112098348. Sagepub. Web.

Smith, G. D., Ng, F., & Ho Cheung Li, W. (2020). COVID‐19: Emerging compassion, courage, and resilience in the face of misinformation and adversity. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(9-10). Web.

Subedi, D., Bhandari, S., Gaire, A., Kandel, M., Subedi, S., & Karki, S. (2020). Knowledge, attitude, and practice associated with COVID-19 among school students in Bharatpur, Chitwan district of Nepal. International Journal of Medical Students. Web.

Tichavová, J., Havránková, T., & Habac, A. (2022). University students’ perception of online language learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. INTED2022 Proceedings. Web.

Texas Board of Nursing Bulleting (2020). Managing clinical experience during the COVID 19 pandemic. Web.