Impact of the availability of care for patients with COVID-19 on nurses' progress in distance learning

In 2020, many nurses were confronted with heightened work-related and personal stressors imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As daily routines were upended, we wanted to understand the impact on nurses' participation in continuous learning. We retrospectively analyzed the learning logs of 194 nurses enrolled in a 12-month distance learning course, one cohort from March 2019 to February 2020 and one from March 2020 to February 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The frequency of monthly logins for the COVID-19 pandemic cohort was compared for nurses with and without prior distance learning experience. Login frequency was also compared for nurses who cared directly for COVID-19 patients and those who did not. Monthly login frequency for March 2020 was significantly higher than for March 2019, while log in frequency for April 2020 was significantly lower than for April 2019. We attribute this to an increase in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in April 2020. From March 2020 to August 2020, login frequency was significantly higher for nurses without previous distance learning experience, suggesting their distance learning strategies were not yet established. During September and October 2020, login frequency was significantly higher in the group with distance learning experience, from which we inferred active procrastination. We found no significant differences in the login frequencies of nurses who cared for COVID-19 patients and those who did not. The results of our study suggest that stressors imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on distance learning progress. Screening in advance for previous distance learning experience and providing mentoring and learning supports are recommended to mitigate interference with distance learning progress during times of heightened professional and personal stress.