Abstract
BackgroundReflective notes in nursing education can facilitate students’ understanding of how individuals in need of home healthcare services experience unfamiliar situations, such as a pandemic. The aim of this study is to describe the consequences of the COVID-19 virus for individuals receiving homecare services through the eyes of nursing students.MethodsThis is a qualitative descriptive study using content analysis to examine reflection notes from 17 nursing students in their last year of academic studies while undertaking home healthcare service training.ResultsOur study shows students’ reflections on the consequences of the COVID-19 virus on individuals needing home healthcare services and their families. The analysis reveals three categories that described the effect of the virus according to students’ reflections: i) how social life became restricted and only includes the closest family members and home healthcare staff (declining social circle), ii) how family members take on more responsibility to care for the individual and the pronounced impact of this on the day-to-day lives of the individual’s next of kin (expanding responsibility of care), and iii) actions and reactions related to preventing the spread of the virus (dealing with the invisible threat).ConclusionsStudents’ reflection notes show that COVID-19 had major consequences, not only on the individuals receiving home healthcare services, but also on their relatives and on home healthcare staff.
Highlights
Reflective notes in nursing education can facilitate students’ understanding of how individuals in need of home healthcare services experience unfamiliar situations, such as a pandemic
The individuals in this study received home healthcare services from one to six times, every 24 h, and required help with activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, going to the toilet, simple food preparation, and administration of medicines. Procedures such as tapping of pleura liquid, care for venous port for palliative patients, handling and care of tracheostomy, colostomy, and help with assisted feeding through percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube were reported by the students
Our analysis revealed three categories that described the effect of the virus according to students’ reflections: i) how social life became restricted and only includes the closest family members and home healthcare staff, ii) how family members take on more responsibility to care for the individual and the pronounced impact of this on the day-to-day lives of the individual’s of kin, and iii) actions and reactions related to preventing the spread of the virus
Summary
Reflective notes in nursing education can facilitate students’ understanding of how individuals in need of home healthcare services experience unfamiliar situations, such as a pandemic. The aim of this study is to describe the consequences of the COVID-19 virus for individuals receiving homecare services through the eyes of nursing students. By the time the restrictions were implemented, third-year nursing students on our campus were completing their last clinical training before graduation. These students had the academic foundation to comprehend some of the consequences that the pandemic could have for those they cared for during their training in home healthcare services. They had no particular training in how handle such a critical situation
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