How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced nursing students' academic experience and career choices? A qualitative descriptive analysis

•The COVID-19 pandemic impacted nursing students’ academic experience and career.•Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 nursing students.•Nursing students need psychological support, employment information, and feedback. COVID-19 control measures influenced education and training environments and profoundly impacted nursing students’ career prospects and academic lives. This study intends to elucidate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing students’ academic experience and career choices. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted at a 4-year university in Japan, using semi-structured interviews with 14 nursing students. Sandelowski's qualitative descriptive analysis was conducted. We identified 11 categories that summarize COVID-19’s influence on students’ academic experience and career choices: “Forced change to a new learning system,” “Difficult learning thoroughly with restricted face-to-face interactions,” “Worries regarding teacher evaluations when face-to-face interactions are restricted,” “Adapting to changes in the learning environment,” “Finding new ways to learn due to the different learning environment,” “Worries regarding career decision-making after losing opportunities to obtain career information,” “Fully utilizing limited information resources in deciding where to work while being influenced by others,” “Coping with a confusing new job hunting system,” “Worries about becoming a nurse without enough practical experience,” “Conscious of working as a nurse while facing infections,” and “Support from those around me is helpful in an unfamiliar environment.” The categories comprised four elements: academic impact, employment/career impact, future impact on working as a nurse, and environmental support. Building an online education/training program, ensuring the availability of regular psychological support, providing abundant information on employment, installing an information desk, and providing regular feedback were considered imperative for supporting nursing students.