Initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on time Japanese nursing faculty devote to research: Cross-sectional survey

Aim: To investigate how nursing faculties' perceived time devoted to research changed during the first wave of the pandemic in Japan (April–June 2020) compared to pre-pandemic. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted online from July 1 to August 10, 2020 and involved 1,023 nursing faculties in Japan. Participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire based on their experiences from April to June 2020. We calculated descriptive statistics for several measures and examined associations between professional/personal demographic factors and declines in overall research time. Results: Of the 1,023 participants, 71.1% were spending less time on overall research activity; 79.6% spent less time attending academic events/conferences, and 77.4% spent less time conducting experiments/surveys. In contrast, 81.2% spent more time teaching, a much greater proportion than the global scientific community in a previous survey. As for work time allocation during the pandemic, teaching was by far the one activity that participants spent the most time on. Logistic regression analysis revealed that declines in overall research time were associated with several professional demographic factors, such as type of university, current academic position, and acquisition status of Japan's major research grant (KAKENHI) (all p <.05). Conclusions: Nursing faculties in Japan clearly spent less time on research, and more time on teaching during the first wave of the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. The initial impact of the pandemic on nursing faculties revealed through this study is an eye-opener and a start for addressing the long-term impact on the nursing scientific community.