Nurse instructors' perception towards distance education during the pandemic

BACKGROUND: The nursing department also completely switched to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This new situation made the studies regarding attitudes, experiences, and difficulties of nursing instructors towards distance education more important. OBJECTIVES: To determine the factors affecting the perceptions of nurse instructors towards distance education during the pandemic. DESIGN: This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 389 nurse instructors working at a university constituted the sample. METHODS: An information form and the Perceptions of Distance Education scale were used for data collection. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, Cronbach Alpha internal consistency analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis test were used in the analysis of the data. RESULT: The nurse instructors' distance education perception scale score and perception regarding basic perspective, and resource access subdimension scores were at a medium level and the education-planning subdimension score at a high level. Those whose opinions on distance education changed compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, those who received education related to distance education, those who used new practices in the lessons, those who believed that distance education is effective, and those who thought that nursing is a suitable program for distance education had higher distance education perception scores. CONCLUSIONS: It was determined that difficulties experienced by nurse instructors in distance education negatively affected the perception of distance education, and that positive experiences in distance education affected the perception positively. It is recommended to organize trainings for instructors to improve distance education skills, to encourage students to participate in classes, and to support nurse lecturers in overcoming difficulties.