Perceived benefits and challenges of online learning among nursing students during COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative phenomenological approach

Abstract

Background: Globally Covid 19 has leased almost all domains of human life in and around;business, education, tourism and so on are not an exception. Medical professionals are group which actively got involved in this disaster management arena. Training of medical and nursing professionals has also got into stake or it got narrowed into online mode of education. Methods: A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted to identify perceived benefits and challenges confronted by nursing students of a selected nursing college in Northern India. Data was collected from thirty nursing students with the help of a validated focus group discussion guide. Five FGD were conducted to collect data until availing data saturation. Data was transcribed, coded and developed themes, sub-themes based on codes keeping participant verbatim in support. Results: The thematic content analysis of Data revealed four core themes 1) academic usefulness, 2) Time effectiveness, 3) Challenges faced, 4) attitude and perception of students and couple of sub themes along with it. Overall impression of the study shows nursing students were less favorable to online mode of learning. Conclusion:This study portrays out all aspects pertaining to online education mode considering ill effects and benefits as perceived by nursing students from their nearly one year of experience. © 2022 Author(s).