Table 1.

Overview showing the themes, sub-themes and categories, along with illustrative quotations, that describe the experiences of final-year nursing students who completed the teaching role practicum during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Themes	Sub-themes	Categories	Quotations
1. An array of emotions	1.1 Reasons for not joining the nursing workforce	1.1.1 Feeling unprepared	S1: “I didn't volunteer because it wasn't the right time, I wasn't ready because of what was going on around me, but that doesn't mean I was just sitting around.”
		1.1.2 Ensuring family safety	S16: “At the beginning I got offers to go in and work, but after discussing it with my family and seeing that not everybody was in favour […] I decided it wasn't worth it, for the stress it would put me under and because I'd be exposing my family to the risk of infection.”
		1.1.3 Personal reasons	S3: “Everyday we get emails with job offers, and you sense that the public needs you, your colleagues need you, and I tell you, how I would have liked to have gone and worked on the frontline to help out! But I have to face reality, and family problems mean that my priorities have changed, and right now they need me at home.”
	1.2 Feelings of loss	1.2.1 Unable to complete the final clinical placement	S17: “My final placement was going to be in the emergency department, I'd specifically requested it, because I wanted to gain as much experience and confidence as possible, all what I still feel I lack, and in these particular circumstances I don't think a placement in a teaching role will be as useful or teach me as much, but there was no other option.”
		1.2.2 Missing out on the usual study-to-work transition	S14: “I've missed out on the final few months of being a student on placement and I'll be going straight into a job without having another opportunity to work under supervision, with somebody whose responsible for what I do.”
	1.3 Not being able to help	1.3.1 Dilemma: wanting to help and not being able to	S2: “[…] when you can't be there on the frontline, you go over and over it in your head, feeling that while you're there at home you're not doing much to help. But then the chance of a teaching role appeared.”
2. Perceived benefits of a teaching role	2.1. Being able to help	2.1.1 Supporting classmates on the frontline	S2: “We wanted to do more than just provide them with info, we wanted to send a message of encouragement, strength to all those who are out there fighting to save lives and who give meaning and a voice to our profession in such difficult times.”
		2.1.2 Opportunity to help	S5: “It's been a different kind of practicum, but I've also learnt things, we've been able to do our bit during the health crisis, even though we couldn't leave the house.”
		2.1.4. Feeling useful	S3: “I feel good, and useful, I've been given responsibility and I want to do a good job, to contribute something […] and in some way or other I feel I've done my bit.”
	2.2. Contributing to knowledge	2.2.1. Providing information that is useful to classmates and professionals	S15: “We've been able to provide our classmates with information they could make use of […].”
		2.2.2 Developing educational material based on learning needs	S17: “We chose this topic at the request of some of our classmates who said that they'd never come across patients having to be in the prone position and it was causing them problems.”
		2.2.3. Focus on relevance, format and readability	S18: “[…] the best way of addressing this topic, and which was the most straightforward for our classmates, was to create a presentation using Canva (an online graphic design platform), it was a practical way of showing them what to do […].”
	2.3. Acquiring competence	2.3.1. Acquiring knowledge	S10: “I've learnt the protocols for how to put on and remove PPE, how to use a face mask, how long the virus remains on different surfaces and how they should be cleaned, as well as a lot of ethical issues about how to protect yourself both at work and outside, the things that professionals need to bear in mind everyday, not just during a crisis.”
		2.3.2. Teamwork	S2: “This role wasn't only about your own learning and creating materials so that others could learn, it was also about working as a team.”
		2.3.3. Being able to manage information	S2: “Me, I learnt a lot, not only the theory behind face masks but also how to manage information.”
		2.3.4. Gaining competence in the use of online resources and platforms	S17: “The teaching role has helped me in terms of searching for reliable information and using platforms such as Padlet and Kahoot, which I'd never used before, to create content.”
	2.4. Value of the tutorials: learning support and companionship	2.4.1. Support from the academic mentor and other students	S17: “The tutorials with other students and the academic mentor have been really good, as you find other classmates are in a similar situation, and the tutor gave me loads of advice and encouragement, which I'm really grateful for.”
		2.4.2. Facilitating learning	S2: “This kind of placement also helps me to see my strengths and weaknesses, and it gives me the chance to boost the former and work on the latter.”
3. Recognizing the teaching role as fundamental to the nursing profession	3.1. Importance of scientific evidence in nursing practice	3.1.1. Learning by doing	S4: “After a few weeks in the teaching role […] you feel that when you start work in a few weeks' time you'll know what protective measures you have to take to avoid infection, and you'll do it based on the scientific evidence, which wasn't the case before.”
		3.1.2. Awareness of the importance of scientific evidence	S4: “This placement has helped me realise how important it is to get your information from a reliable scientific source.”
	3.2. Appreciating the value of the teaching role in nursing	3.2.1. Teaching as part of nursing practice	S5: “During the teaching role practicum, I've realised how important and influential nursing is with respect to the general public, because in addition to caring for patients we can inform and educate the healthy population to prevent disease.”
		3.2.2. Importance of health education within the nursing profession	S10: “Nurses, our role now isn't just patient care, it's health education, and that is often overlooked and not given the importance it deserves. As nurses we have to make the role of health educators our own, and it was only through the teaching role practicum that I realised this.”