The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australian hospital-based nursing and midwifery educators

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted health services and their staff, including nursing and midwifery educators. Nursing and midwifery educators were tasked with meeting nurses’ and midwives’ rapidly-changing educational requirements, and supporting the nursing and midwifery workforce through the pandemic. Thus, nursing and midwifery educators were pivotal to the pandemic response. Aim: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing and midwifery educators across four large, multisite Australian health services. Methods: Qualitative descriptive study. All nursing and midwifery educators from public health services in Melbourne, Victoria (n = 3) and Adelaide, South Australia (n=1) were invited to participate in a semistructured interview (July – November 2020). Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed thematically. Findings: Forty-six nursing and midwifery educators participated in interviews. Across the health services, two similar themes and six sub-themes were identified. In the first theme, “Occupational impacts of COVID-19,” participants described adjusting to providing education during the pandemic, managing increased workloads, concerns about not being able to carry out their usual education activities and the importance of support at work. The second theme, “Psychological impacts of COVID-19,” included two sub-themes: the negative impact on participants’ own mental health and difficulties supporting the mental health of other staff members. Participants from all health services identified unexpected positive impacts; online education, virtual meetings and working at home were perceived as practices to be continued postpandemic. Conclusions: Hospital-based nursing and midwifery educators demonstrated agility in adjusting to the fast-changing requirements of providing education during the pandemic. Educators would benefit from continued occupational and psychosocial support during the COVID-19 pandemic, and inclusion in discussions to inform hospitals’ preparedness for managing the education of nurses and midwives during future pandemics.