Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing skills experience and subjective attainment among final-year nursing students in Japan: a questionnaire-based multicenter cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has drawn attention and been cited as a challenge in nursing education, as it led to the disruption of student clinical training and changes in classroom education. However, the impact of the pandemic on nursing students in Japan, where nursing students were deprived of field internships due to a change to on-campus internships, remains unclear. METHODS: During the state of emergency announced at the peak of the pandemic in Japan, a questionnaire survey was conducted to analyze changes in nursing skills experience, nursing skills attainment, and internships changed from the field to on campus before and during the pandemic among final-year nursing students, as well as the factors influencing these changes. Data were collected before (from January to February 2012) and during (from December 2020 to March 2021) the pandemic. The study population consisted of 237 students before and 303 during the pandemic from five multi-institutional nursing education institutions in the Chugoku area of Japan. RESULTS: During the pandemic, clinical practice decreased to under 50%, with home health nursing being the most limited, at 22.4%. Among 31 nursing skills in clinical practice, the students were able to perform 23 (74.2%) before compared with 17 (54.8%) during the pandemic. Of these 31 nursing skills, the students judged that they could perform 21 (67.7%) without help before compared with 13 (41.9%) during the pandemic. The most closely related area to on-site attainment was adult nursing, with seven of 21 skills being effective (regression coefficients: 0.655-1.265, p < 0.05). Similar to adult nursing, home health attainment was effective for four of 21 skills (regression coefficients: 0.838-1.290, p < 0.05); however, for on-campus training, no nursing skills area showed effective attainment. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic restricted nursing students' opportunities for clinical practice and their experience and subjective skills attainment in Japan. Of note, the clinical training area had the greatest effect on the subjects' nursing skills attainment during the pandemic. These findings highlight the importance of clinical practice for improving nursing skills attainment.