A Study on the Limitations and Alternatives of Clinical Nursing Practices: Based on the learning experience of nursing students who were in the process of converted clinical practice to replaced clinical practice due to COVID-19

Objectives The purpose of this study is to identify the limitations and alternatives of clinical nursing practice based on the experiences of nursing students who experienced both clinical practice and clinical alternative practice during COVID-19. Methods Descriptive exploratory method was approached within the qualitative research paradigm. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 13 fourth-year nursing students. The interview data was analyzed by qualitative content thematic analysis. Results In the result of this study, the strengths clinical practice were found to be major limitations in alternative practice, and the limitations of clinical practice were analyzed as strengths of alternative practice. This was categorized into ‘embodied nursing skills that expanded the theory’ and ‘skills trapped in the framework of the theory’, and ‘expansion of performance’ and ‘limitation of performance’ were derived as connected categories as a central axis. Conclusions This study found that in the framework of clinical practice, existing clinical practice and alternative practice are becoming complementary to each other. In addition, alternative practice needs to be practice in terms of supplementing clinical practice rather than replacement of clinical practice.