FACING UP COVID-19: WHAT CANNOT BE RELATIVIZED IN NURSING HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: to present reflective arguments on the measures to accelerate the training of nurses and their early insertion in the health system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: an analytical and theoretical-reflective text, based on the central construct of “Nursing knowledge”, whose theoretical framework of reference was formed by two of the fundamental patterns of knowing, from Chinn & Kramer's perspective: the ethical and the empirical. Results: newly graduated nurses, in the process of accelerated training, will have few resources available from the empirical knowledge pattern, both due to the reduced framework of knowledge evidence and to the difficulty in dealing with mechanisms that are often unknown. As they do not have levels of clinical knowledge, such as that developed in the applications of practical experience, recent graduates may have to confront situations that will impact on the ethical knowledge pattern. Conclusion: the acceleration in the training of Nursing students and their insertion in the health system in the current pandemic situation must be viewed with caution, as the risks are high, both from the point of view of clinical decision-making and from the perspective of facing dilemmas and ethical problems.