A qualitative exploration of health student perspectives of rural and remote placements during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective: To explore health student perspectives of rural and remote placements during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Setting: Australia. Participants: Allied health, nursing and medical students with a planned rural or remote placement between February and October 2020. Design: Semi-structured interviews (n = 29) with data thematically analysed. Results: Five main themes emerged from student experiences: (1) ‘Do we go? Don't we go? Like how much risk is involved?’ related to student concerns regarding acquiring and transmitting COVID-19 on placement; (2) ‘We are sort of just standing at the door trying to watch’ encompassed student perceptions of missed clinical learning opport..