Abstract:
“Novel Corona Virus” (COVID-19) is a new infectious disease spreading all around the world that has a globally significant
morbidity and mortality at present. Nurses as frontline care
providers in hospitals and community are exposed to a major risk.
This brief report aims at providing an overview of COVID-19
impacts on Sri Lanka and to highlight educational implications
from the perspective of nursing degree programs. The major
impacts of COVID-19 on nursing education were unequal access
to online distance learning, disruption of academic calendars, cancellation of clinical placements, teaching and learning gap, lack of
facilities for online learning, disruption towards professional
development, and inability to conduct proper clinical assessments
and standard operationalization procedures. It suggests that higher
education institutions should take actions to provide material support for students from low-income households to close the gap
between teaching and learning and training academics on different
online teaching and learning strategies and assessments.
