Nursing students need hands-on experience (opinion) Updated Dec 22, 2020; Posted Dec 22, 2020 A lack of hands-on learning deprives students of experiences essential to their formation as nurses. The hard truth is that nursing students cannot learn hands-on care from a book or a computer. Facebook Share By Faculty of Wagner College’s Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing. The first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic caused health care organizations, colleges and universities to close their doors to students, including those studying nursing. Across the nation, nursing education moved online and students cared for virtual patients. While these efforts saved personal protective equipment for the clinicians who needed it most and limited the number of people in facilities to “flatten the curve,’' teaching and learning suffered.