The Evolution of Nursing Faculty During Unprecedented Times

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing education has made unprecedented rapid changes in policy and procedure directly impacting faculty, students, and didactic, clinical, and skills laboratory instruction. There has been a constant ebb and flow in the development of government mandates, accrediting body guidelines, clinical partnering organizational protocol, and infection control procedures all aimed at reducing the spread of the Coronavirus. As a result, nursing faculty have had to evolve as well. In this rapid transition, nursing faculty have had to quickly learn and apply online course design, and have done so with unwavering student-centered dedication and astonishing speed. Even prior to the pandemic, nursing students had consistently reported high levels of anxiety, self-doubt, and stress during their nursing education programs. These feelings have only been magnified during these times of uncertainty and have also negatively impacted students’ sense of self-efficacy. However, nursing faculty have been instrumental in helping students to handle these recent losses and adapt to the new “normal.” Hence, nursing faculty interaction with students has “expanded” to include purposeful focused behaviors and strategies that not only encourage and support students, but also reduce their perceived stress and develop and sustain student self-efficacy through periods of great change and loss. The evolution of nursing faculty during this pandemic has been characterized by incredible resourcefulness, unrelenting dedication, and selfless compassion in how instruction is delivered, and in interactions with a diverse, multigenerational nursing student population at a deeper level of connectedness.