Nursing students' experience and training in healthcare aid during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain

Antonio Hernández-Martínez, Julián Rodríguez-Almagro, Alejandro Martínez-Arce, Cristina Romero-Blanco, Juan Jesús García-Iglesias, Juan Gómez-Salgado, Antonio Hernández-Martínez, Julián Rodríguez-Almagro, Alejandro Martínez-Arce, Cristina Romero-Blanco, Juan Jesús García-Iglesias, Juan Gómez-Salgado

Abstract

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic health crisis, in some countries such as Spain, nursing students have offered to provide health assistance, but the role they have played, their degree of preparedness to face the situation, and what must be improved in their training to be ready for these situations is unknown.

Objective: Describe the experience and perceptions of students of the Nursing university degree during their participation as health support in the COVID-19 health crisis in Spain.

Design: We conducted a cross-sectional survey study.

Method: 503 students enrolled in the 4th course of the Nursing degree in Spain during the months of March and April 2020. An online questionnaire was developed, based on a pilot study and distributed through the Nursing Association, students' unions and students' associations. Variables were used to describe their participation, degree of preparedness and training needs to determine how to improve training through descriptive statistics, as well as nonparametric tests to analyse the relationship between training and degree of preparedness nursing students. Results are reported according to the STROBE Statement.

Results: 73.2% (368) of students offered to participate in healthcare aid, of which 225 were actively involved. 27.8% carried out nursing tasks without supervision, and 47.7% assisted COVID-19 patients as any other nurse. Only 3.4% felt very prepared to work in the field of intensive care, finding that those students who perceived a higher degree of preparedness had received previous training in personal protective equipment and mechanical ventilation (p < 0.005). The highest scores for training activities that may improve their preparedness were simulations to improve levels of anxiety and stress when managing critical patients, simulation in ventilatory support and mandatory practices in services where ventilators are used.

Conclusions: Although three out of four students were willing to provide health assistance, they recognise that they were not specially prepared in the field of intensive care and demand training with simulation to improve anxiety and stress levels in the management of critical patients and simulation in ventilatory support.

Relevance to clinical practice: Students have been vital resources for our health system and society when they have been needed. It is now up to us, both teachers and health authorities, to share their efforts by implementing the necessary improvements in training and safety measures not only because these affects the health and safety of the patient, but because they will be essential parts in future pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; nursing; simulation training; students.

Conflict of interest statement

No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).

© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

References

    1. Beal, M. D. , Kinnear, J. , Anderson, C. R. , Martin, T. D. , Wamboldt, R. , & Hooper, L. (2017). The effectiveness of medical simulation in teaching medical students critical care medicine. In Lippincott Williams and Wilkins (Ed.), Simulation in Healthcare: The Journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (pp. 104–116). 10.1097/SIH.0000000000000189
    1. Cant, R. P. , & Cooper, S. J. (2017). The value of simulation‐based learning in pre‐licensure nurse education: a state‐of‐the‐art review and meta‐analysis. Nurse education in practice (pp. 45–62). Churchill Livingstone. 10.1016/j.nepr.2017.08.012
    1. Cervera‐Gasch, Á. , González‐Chordá, V. M. , & Mena‐Tudela, D. (2020). COVID‐19: Are Spanish medicine and nursing students prepared? In Elsevier (Ed.), Nurse Education Today. Churchill Livingstone: 10.1016/j.nedt.2020.104473
    1. Cubel, P. M. L. (2006). La especialidad en cuidados intensivos, una especialidad necesaria. In Enfermeria Intensiva (pp. 1–2). Enferm Intensiva. 10.1016/S1130-2399(06)73907-4
    1. España, A. B. C. (2020). Estudiantes de enfermería y medicina contra el Covid‐19. ABC Newspaper.,
    1. Español, E. L. (2020). Coronavirus: Las estudiantes de Enfermería ya se juegan la vida contra el Covid‐19 con contratos precarios. El Español Newspaper.,
    1. Instituto de Salud Carlos III . (n.d.). Informe no 33. Análisis de los casos de COVID‐19 notificados a la RENAVE hasta el 10 de mayo en Españaa 29 de mayode 2020. Equipo COVID‐19. RENAVE.
    1. Instituto de Salud Carlos III . (2020). Informe sobre la situación de COVID‐19 en personal sanitario en España.
    1. Jackson, D. , Bradbury‐Jones, C. , Baptiste, D. , Gelling, L. , Morin, K. , Neville, S. , & Smith, G. D. (2020). Life in the pandemic: Some reflections on nursing in the context of COVID‐19. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(13‐14), 2041–2043. 10.1111/jocn.15257
    1. La Cerra, C. , Dante, A. , Caponnetto, V. , Franconi, I. , Gaxhja, E. , Petrucci, C. , Alfes, C. M. , & Lancia, L. (2019). Effects of high‐fidelity simulation based on life‐threatening clinical condition scenarios on learning outcomes of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. British Medical Journal Open, 9(2), e025306. 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025306.
    1. Lee, S. M. , Kang, W. S. , Cho, A.‐R. , Kim, T. , & Park, J. K. (2018). Psychological impact of the 2015 MERS outbreak on hospital workers and quarantined hemodialysis patients. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 87, 123–127. 10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.10.003
    1. Legido‐Quigley, H. , Mateos‐García, J. T. , Campos, V. R. , Gea‐Sánchez, M. , Muntaner, C. , & McKee, M. (2020). The resilience of the Spanish health system against the COVID‐19 pandemic. In The Lancet Public Health (pp. e251–e252). Elsevier Ltd. 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30060-8
    1. Liu, S. , Yang, L. , Zhang, C. , Xiang, Y. T. , Liu, Z. , Hu, S. , & Zhang, B. (2020). Online mental health services in China during the COVID‐19 outbreak. In The Lancet Psychiatry (pp. e17–e18). Elsevier Ltd. 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30077-8.
    1. Maunder, R. , Hunter, J. , Vincent, L. , Bennett, J. , Peladeau, N. , Leszcz, M. , Sadavoy, J. , Verhaeghe, L. M. , Steinberg, R. , & Mazzulli, T. (2003). The immediate psychological and occupational impact of the 2003 SARS outbreak in a teaching hospital. CMAJ, 168(10), 1245–1251.
    1. Médica, R. (2020). Coronavirus: El Estado puede reclutar a alumnos de Enfermería y Medicina. RedacciónMédica Newspaper,
    1. Ministerio de Sanidad de España (2020). Boletin Oficial del Estado. Numero 68. 15, Marzo de 2020.
    1. Ministerio de Sanidad España.Centro de Coordinación de alertas y emergencias sanitarias . (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) situation report 128.
    1. Radio Televion Española (2020). Estudiantes de enfermería y medicina luchan contra el coronavirus en primera linea. RTVE Web.,
    1. Representatives of the STARSurg Collaborative, EuroSurg Collaborative, and T. C (2020). Medical student involvement in the COVID‐19 response. The Lancet, 395, 65001. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30795-9
    1. Swift, A. , Banks, L. , Baleswaran, A. , Cooke, N. , Little, C. , McGrath, L. , Meechan‐Rogers, R. , Neve, A. , Rees, H. , Tomlinson, A. , & Williams, G. (2020). COVID‐19 and student nurses: A view from England. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(17‐18), 3111–3114. 10.1111/jocn.15298
    1. WHO . (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) Situation Report‐110.
    1. World Health Organization . (2020). WHO Director‐General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on. COVID‐19 ‐ 11 March 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020, from
    1. Xiong, Y. , & Peng, L. (2020). Focusing on health‐care providers’ experiences in the COVID‐19 crisis. The Lancet Global Health, 10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30214-X
    1. Yonge, O. , Rosychuk, R. J. , Bailey, T. M. , Lake, R. , & Marrie, T. J. (2010). Willingness of university nursing students to volunteer during a pandemic. Public Health Nursing, 27(2), 174–180. 10.1111/j.1525-1446.2010.00839.x
    1. Zhai, Y. , & Du, X. (2020). Mental health care for international Chinese students affected by the COVID‐19 outbreak. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), e22. 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30089-4

Source: PubMed

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

3
Subscribe