Young-Su Park

Department of Nursing, Catholic University of Pusan, Busan, Korea


Background: This study aims to investigate the relationship between clinical practice stress, communication skills, and clinical performance of nursing students who have engaged in virtual online practicum due to corona- virus disease-19 (COVID-19). The findings will serve as foundational data for developing education programs to enhance nursing students’ clinical performance.
Methods: The data were collected from 111 third- and fourth- year nursing students at a nursing school in Busan Metropolitan City who experienced virtual online clinical practice due to COVID-19, from October 4 to October 15, 2021. Instruments to measure clinical practice stress, communication skills, and clinical performance were used. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one way analysis of variance, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients.
Results: Among nursing students who have engaged in a virtual online clinical practice, the mean clinical prac- tice stress score was 2.49±0.53, and the mean communication skills score was 4.01±0.43. The mean clinical performance score was 3.80±0.56. Clinical performance was significantly positively correlated with communi- cation skills (r=0.62; P<0.001).
Conclusions: Based on these results, it is important to develop and implement education programs that en- hance communication skills in order to improve clinical performance in nursing students who have experienced virtual online practice. As this study was conducted on nursing students at a single school, interpretation of the results requires caution. Thus, future research should recruit a larger study population and identify relevant variables.
Korean J Health Promot 2023;23(4):190-197

Keywords: Clinical competence, Communication, Nursing students, Psychological stress