Evaluation of the Satisfaction of Nursing Students Receiving Distance Education in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Nursing education, which has a theoretical, laboratory, and applied education models among education-teaching methods, has been carried out mainly through distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aim: The study aimed to evaluate the distance education given to nursing students in terms of student satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The study was conducted in descriptive design. The research was carried out at a university located in the north of Türkiye. A total of 323 students studying in the nursing department constituted the research sample. Research data were collected with Personal Information Form and Satisfaction Scale for E-Courses (SSEC). Mann–Whitney U-test and Kruskal–Wallis test were used in the analysis of research data.

Results: The mean age of the students in the study was 20.84 ± 2.15 years and 80.2% of them were female. The mean of the total SSEC score was 115.33 ± 23.69. It was determined that students’ e-course satisfaction was moderate (66%), teacher-student interaction sub-dimension (70%), and environment design sub-dimension (73%) were high. It was determined that the e-course satisfaction level of the students who did not have any problems in attending e-courses, who were 4th-grade students, and who did not have any difficulties in learning applied courses was better (P < 0.05). It was found that 44.7% of the students had difficulty following the courses, and 73.6% did not want nursing education to be done entirely by distance education.

Conclusion: While the students are more positive than the theoretical courses of nursing education given by distance education, they do not respond positively to the fact that courses developing practical and nursing skills are provided by distance learning. It is recommended that nursing educators should structure their education curricula in accordance with the process, develop constructivist learning models, and in the coming period, experience students’ e-learning experiences, and their use in clinical work environments and design research studies for this.