Open AccessImpact of the COVID-19 national lockdown on pharmacy students’ productivity and their coping strategies in a developing country: An online survey in Nigerian universities
Author(s) -
Abdulmuminu Isah,
Deborah Oyine Aluh,
Abubakar Abba,
Patrick Ogbonna Chukwu,
E. Okpara,
Abubakar Sadiq Abdullahi,
Nneka Uchenna Igboeli,
Maxwell Ogochukwu Adibe,
Chukwuemeka S. Nworu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
pharmacy education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.198
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1477-2701
pISSN - 1560-2214
DOI - 10.46542/pe.2020.202.249259
Subject(s) - pharmacy , covid-19 , coping (psychology) , medical education , psychology , pandemic , medicine , nursing , clinical psychology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria led to a national lockdown that resulted in the suspension of academic activities.Objective: To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 national lockdown on pharmacy students’ productivity and their coping strategies.Methods: This study involved the cross-sectional collection of responses from undergraduate students of six Nigerian schools of pharmacy. Data was collected using a structured, validated questionnaire in the form of Google form. The data was entered into a statistical product and service solutions software (SPSS, version-25) for analysis.Results: A total of 808 students responded to the questionnaire. The majority of the students’ responses (757, 93.7%) showed that their reading duration had decreased during the lockdown. The most missed variable during the closure by students was ‘school life’ (303, 37.5%). The use of social media (133, 16.5%) was the most common coping strategy. The majority of the students, 544 (67.3%), agreed to participate in the virtual mode of learning. The cost of data was the main challenge to online learning by the students (288, 36.0%).Conclusion: This study shows that the productivity of pharmacy students decreased during the COVID-19 lockdown. Social media and business activities were the most common coping mechanisms of pharmacy students. Pharmacy students were willing to accept virtual learning despite possible challenges.