Distance learning in nursing training: Reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective: to reflect on the use of distance learning in nursing graduate programs in Brazil in the scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: critical essay through reflections anchored in the literature about the use of distance learning in the training of nurses and circumscriptors resulting from the pandemic. Results: discussions on the use of distance learning in nursing education in Brazil respond to different educational, professional, political and economic interests. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, since 2020, such debates have been intensified due to the use of distance learning methodologies in the continuity of many training courses, once exclusively in person. Conclusion: although the methodologies of distance learning allow, at first, the continuity of the training processes in nursing, it is reaffirmed that teaching-learning for health care demands proximity and contact.