The impact of Covid-19 on the mental health, resilience, well-being, and supported learning experiences of current students and recent graduates of OU nursing and social work programmes.

 The study builds on projects previously funded by WELS RESDEV and PRAXIS: 1) a scoping review to identify literature regarding the impact of emergency healthcare responses to Covid-19 on student nurses and undergraduate nursing curriculums, and 2) a small-scale mixed-methods study of OU Nursing Associate (NA) students and graduates which considers the impact of Covid-19 on their learning experiences. A rapid review of literature regarding Covid-19 and social work students was also undertaken.  

Analysis of findings from these projects suggest the pandemic has been disruptive for many students and their educators, but the focus of research to date has been students on face-to-face courses with little attention given to distance learners.  

The study takes account of the OU position as the pre-eminent distance learning educator in higher education to address the gaps in literature already discussed. It is cross-disciplinary in nature, with buy in from departments of nursing and social work. The study will take two academic years to complete because it seeks to give an in-depth account of the impact of Covid-19 on successive waves of registered students and recent graduates across the four nations. These cohorts are likely to have had different learning experiences as pedagogical and pastoral responses to the pandemic shifted and progressed. As well as academic outputs, the study results will have implications for OU nursing and social work programmes going forward