Readiness for clinical practice amidst coronavirus among nursing students in southwest Nigeria

Background: COVID-19 is a public health problem that has claimed the lives of many men, women, and children globally, apart from its overwhelming economic impact. Nurses are inexorably faced with this situation as part of the frontline hospital workers, likewise student nurses on clinical practice while on training. Objective: To assess readiness on resumption for clinical practice amidst coronavirus pandemic among Nursing students in South-West Nigeria. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study that utilized a multistage sampling technique to select the respondents. Three-hundred respondents were recruited for the study. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0, descriptive statistics were presented in tables and charts while the hypotheses were tested with Chi-square at a significant level of p = 0.05. Results: The findings revealed that the mean and standard deviation of the respondents was 22.16 ± 3.11 years; 61.7% were ready for clinical practice, 92(30.7%) were ready to nurse coronavirus patients. There is a significant difference between nursing institutions and readiness for clinical practice p = 0.000. There is no significant difference between years of clinical exposure and readiness for clinical practice p = 0.594. Conclusion: This study revealed that though the students had a high level of readiness, only few are ready to practice in coronavirus wards, this could pose a challenge to future nurses. It is important to build clinical competence and students’ confidence to work in areas of infectious diseases like coronavirus.