Background During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, nursing students continued to undertake clinical placements in most healthcare environments as part of their pre-registration education programme. The practice learning experiences and disaster preparedness of UK nursing students during the pandemic have not yet been sufficiently explored.

Aim To explore nursing students’ practice learning experiences and disaster preparedness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method This was a qualitative interpretive study in which 12 nursing students submitted reflective accounts of their practice learning experiences and disaster preparedness in the form of personal audio recordings.

Findings Six overarching themes were identified: adjusted educational experience; preparedness for practice learning; effects on patient care; variations in supervision and support; transformative transferable learning; and future preparedness for disasters. Participants experienced several challenges in relation to their educational preparation and clinical placements, but also a range of positive outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, behaviours and new perspectives.

Conclusion There are lessons to learn from nursing students’ experiences during the pandemic in terms of educational preparation for disasters. Further investigation is needed to determine the scope and timing of disaster preparation within preregistration nurse education curricula.