Coronavirus: Nursing Students’ Knowledge and Risk Perception of Clinical Practice during the Pandemic

Background: The attendance of nursing students in clinical settings is an inherent element of the nursing education, and it is the same even with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) pandemic. Globally, more than 260 nurses have been killed by the COVID‑19 disease and the number is still increasing. Objective: The study assessed nursing students’ perception of clinical practice amidst coronavirus pandemic in southwest Nigeria. Methods: This is a cross‑sectional study that utilized a multistage sampling method to select 300 respondents from the selected nursing institution in southwest Nigeria. The questionnaire is made up of three sections namely, sociodemographic variables, knowledge of COVID‑19, and students’ perception of clinical practice. Data were collected with Google Form and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: The mean age of the respondents was 22.16 ± 3.11 years and the mean year exposed to clinical practice was 2.73 ± 0.91 years. Majority (71%) had good knowledge of coronavirus, with mean ± standard deviation (SD) 16.16 ± 1.84, while 57.7% had a positive perception of clinical practice during coronavirus pandemic, with a mean ± SD of 3.62 ± 1.22. There was no significant difference between knowledge and perception of clinical practice post coronavirus pandemic, P = 0.088. There is a significant relationship between nursing students’ perception of clinical practice with coronavirus and nursing institution (P = 0.001) and level of study (P = 0.001). Conclusion: The study showed that nursing students were willing to continue with their clinical practice even with coronavirus patients in the wards.