Distance Community Work by Nursing Students in their Integrated Professional Practice during COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: The lockdown due to the COVID-19 health crisis urged for the realization of Nursing training activities using the virtual way, without a true knowledge of how the process is or the involved aspects.

Objective: To understand the process of distance community work of Nursing students in primary health care, as part of the integrated professional practice course.

Methods: A case study was conducted with a qualitative design and an ethnographic approach within the postpositivist paradigm. The research subjects corresponded to 69 fifth-year students of the Nursing major from Universidad de Chile, in the year 2020, who carried out their professional practice at a distance. Content analysis was performed, according to Bardin, to eight community works (25 students). Saturation of the object of study was achieved. Rigorous criteria were applied according to Guba and Lincoln.

Results: With the metacategory community work process, four categories of analysis emerged: people (ways of life and work of people, and massive delivery of information to people), nursing (nursing adaptation, nursing roles and nursing training), status (social determinants of health in pandemic), and community work (adaptation and purpose, and community involvement).

Conclusions: The distance education process developed in the training of future nursing professionals is understood and it is evident how telenursing has been constituted as a primary strategy to face the COVID-19 pandemic.