Association between total days of clinical practice and nursing skill achievement level in nursing university students under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to implement clinical practice in basic nursing education. Clinical practice was canceled or postponed, and on-campus alternatives were implemented. In this study, we examined whether the reduction in total days of clinical practice due to the COVID-19 restrictions had an effect on nursing students' acquisition of nursing skills.

Methods: The total days of clinical practice and self-reported achievement level of nursing skills among students at University A were extracted from existing data for secondary analysis. To clarify students' nursing skills acquisition status, based on the graduation attainment level determined by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, we calculated the proportion of those who achieved the level and those who did not, for each of the 144 nursing skills. Next, to examine the impact of shortening the total days of clinical practice on students' nursing skill acquisition, the association between the total days of clinical practice and the nursing skill achievement rate against the graduation attainment level was evaluated using Spearman's correlation coefficient. Furthermore, descriptive statistics and t-test were used to evaluate the difference in the total days of clinical practice between the group that achieved the graduation attainment level and the group that did not. All analyses were performed using EZR on R commander 1.61.

Results: Of the 144 skills evaluated, in 22 skills, 80% or more students achieved the graduation attainment level, while in 18, 80% or more did not. The skill acquisition and non-acquisition patterns were consistent with findings from studies conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. The correlation between the total days of clinical practice and the nursing skill achievement rate was not significant, as indicated by the correlation coefficient of -0.113 (p = 0.395). In 9 of the 144 skills, the non-achievers group had significantly more days of clinical practice than the achievers group.

Conclusion: The reduction in the total days of clinical practice had no significant effect on students' acquisition of nursing skills, suggesting that the on-campus alternative practice conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to students' acquisition of nursing skills. However, since clinical practice involves learning aspects other than technical skills, further research is necessary to assess the overall impact of reduction in the total days of clinical practice.