Background: In spring 2020, nursing education programs abruptly transitioned the teaching and learning of nursing practice skills to virtual environments as the result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Method: This study sought to describe ethnographically how faculty and students formed and integrated clinical judgment and other nursing practice skills within this quickly formed virtual subculture. Thirty-seven associate-degree nursing students participated in small group interviews, and four faculty participated in one-to-one interviews.
Results: Two overarching themes were identified: (1) the pervading mood of learning through the pandemic; and (2) the primacy of the nursing traditions of direct care experience. Themes were nested further within the five essentials for human learning: curiosity, authenticity, emotion, sociality, and failure.
Conclusion: Virtual simulation cases with focused prebriefing and debriefing sessions provided experiences that were targeted, shared, guaranteed, and safe. Adequately supported virtual simulation platforms can enhance the learning of nursing skills. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(10):541-547.].