The Experience of Nursing Students with Respect to Virtual Academic Thesis Advising at a Peruvian Private University

Abstract

Introduction: The pandemic situation, complicated by fear and uncertainty due to health-related events with social, labor and economic sequels, as well as accompanied by lockdown, encouraged the reorientation of face-to-face teaching towards virtual teaching with the aim of advising students in the completion of their thesis.

Objective: To describe the experience of Nursing students with respect to virtual academic thesis advising at a Peruvian private university.

Methods: A qualitative research with an exploratory descriptive approach was conducted from August to October 2021. The population consisted of 35 Nursing students from a private university in Chiclayo, Peru, who were in their last semester; while the sample, obtained using the saturation and redundancy technique, was 13 students. To collect the data, a semistructured interview was carried out through the Zoom platform with prior informed consent. Then, the information was processed using thematic content analysis.

Results: Four categories were obtained: a) benefits of virtual advising, b) difficulties of virtual advising, c) usage of digital media for virtual advising, and d) suggestions for improving virtual advising of academic thesis.

Conclusions: Nursing students have experienced greater accompaniment from their thesis advisors, as well as economic savings, when receiving virtual advising for their academic thesis; although they presented difficulties with the use of Internet, especially at the beginning of COVID-19. Such advising was developed through Zoom, Google Meet, WhatsApp, email and phone calls. Therefore, virtual advising could be maintained in the future.