ISRRT_COVID-19_book

The timing of the official communication was criticised as the students felt that it was ‘abrupt’,
with very short notice and leaving them feeling ‘disorientated’.
“We got that email literally the day before telling us to get out.”
A3 - Anxiety
Students unanimously discussed feeling ‘anxious’ or ‘stressed’ during the closing end of
placement. This was mostly attributed to feeling rushed to complete placement and finalise
any outstanding work, however being unable to achieve this due to the lack of available
appraisers.
“Anxious about getting everything done, like the appraisals, the academic work.”
Another element that caused anxiety in was feeling that leaving placement early would have
a negative impact on their ‘competency’ in practice. This resulted in a student feeling
‘concerned’ about going into third-year placement, as their confidence had been knocked.
Furthermore, one student in particular felt ‘disappointed’ that they had not received their
individual placement feedback from their key practice educator too.
“I feel that not having that feedback, you went into third-year placement not knowing if you
were competent or not really.”
Theme B: Online Learning
Analysis of comments regarding remote learning revealed two main themes: (1) online
adaption issues and (2) online quality.
B1 – Online adaption issues
Firstly, most students discussed difficulties with adapting to online learning, for several
different reasons such as: issues with ‘motivation’, ‘engagement’, having to balance learning
with family commitments, and even simply missing ‘face-to-face problem solving’ whilst being
alone with learning.
“I really struggled to engage with any of it to be honest. When you’ve got children at home
and you’ve got to do exams and lectures, it’s just really hard.”
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