Affiliation:
1. PhD, PHN, Department of Community Health Nursing, College of Nursing, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.
Abstract
Background: Different kinds of challenges hinder online education adoption in universities. For example, technological obstacles, lack of up-to-date infrastructure, poor knowledge and experience in computer utilization, internet accessibility barriers, as well as language and culture-specific challenges. Objective(s): Evaluate the current challenges of nursing students about online nursing education in Middle Euphrates Region of Iraq. Methodology: This paper is the third part of a large-scale study. A descriptive evaluative approach is conducted to evaluate the current challenges of nursing students regarding onlinenursing education through web-based courses, programs, online examinations, and quizzes, through the period from September 15, 2020, to April 13, 2021. This part of the study is carried out at two Colleges of Nursing in Iraqi Universities, a sample of (80) undergraduate nursing students is recruited from these colleges using the non-probability sampling approach to gather a convenient sample. A self-report questionnaire is developed from the literature, for the evaluation process. Results: The results depicts that slightly more than half of the students (53%) have experienced inconsistencies and less than one quarter (13%) of them experienced acceptance and positive outlook of online nursing education, while (34%) were completely challenged with this learning approach at the early oneset of COVID-19 and online education adoption. Conclusion: The study concludes that more than half of the students at nursing colleges in the Middle Euphrates Region of Iraq demonstrated a least satisfactory degree of learning, cognition, and comprehension as a domain of online nursing education. Recommendations: The infrastructure necessary to execute online nursing education should be accessible to both the teaching staff and the students in nursing programs. The implementation of online nursing education should be carefully supervised for the benefit of educational institutions, teaching staff, and the students who attend those institutions.