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OUR PEOPLE,<br />
OUR MISSION<br />
A New Series:<br />
SARS-COV2 PANDEMIC AND US<br />
Global Health<br />
<strong>eMagazine</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> 2022<br />
A Nursing Professor’s Perspective in Teaching<br />
During a Pandemic<br />
Part 1<br />
Written by Monica Sousa Ed.D, ACNS-BC, APRN<br />
Professor of Nursing at Western Connecticut State University<br />
A Note from Dr. Sadigh<br />
Reflections on 2021<br />
Highlights<br />
Nursing Division<br />
SARS COV-2 Pandemic<br />
and Us<br />
Unification<br />
Condolences: Paul Farmer<br />
Art to Remind Us of<br />
Who We Can Be<br />
Articles of the Month<br />
Videos of the Month<br />
Announcements<br />
Calendar<br />
Resources<br />
I will always remember being in the meeting with faculty, the<br />
department of nursing chair, and the dean on Wednesday, <strong>March</strong><br />
11, 2020 when we discussed how this new virus that seemed so<br />
far away from us was now in our backyard. We tried to think<br />
of scenarios of what might be happening, how we would meet<br />
clinical hour requirements if we had to go virtual, what faculty<br />
might need to teach online, what equipment would be required,<br />
and the resources students might need to learn in the virtual<br />
environment. At the time we had no idea what a long rough road was ahead of us. Two days later,<br />
our university along with all the schools in our area closed. The anxiety of not knowing what was<br />
happening loomed large, as did the fear of getting sick and wondering what I would do if any of<br />
my family members contracted COVID-19.<br />
I do not think I slept that weekend. We thought that since the following week was spring break<br />
we would isolate for the week and be back the next week. However, before the weekend had<br />
ended, we received a flood of emails that the university was going virtual for the remainder of the<br />
semester. The anxiety, worry, and fear intensified tremendously. So many questions raced through<br />
my head constantly. How was I going to prepare myself and my children during this chaotic time?<br />
How was I going to educate nursing students in their last two months of school before graduation<br />
and prepare them to take their state board nursing exam while teaching online? How was I going to<br />
be there for my students and colleagues? How do I plan for something I have never experienced?<br />
Over spring break, I went to campus to bring everything I could think of home that I would or could<br />
need for class, committee meetings, and projects I had been working on. I had no idea exactly<br />
what I needed but figured I might as well bring everything just in case. It was an eerie feeling to<br />
walk onto campus. It was like a ghost town with a strange and unsettling vibe. I wondered when I<br />
would see students back in the classroom and have meetings with colleagues in the same room.<br />
I went home to figure out a plan to manage everything. At home, I had to help my two young<br />
daughters with their online schooling, find a babysitter to come to the house so I could work, and<br />
figure out how to get groceries and household essentials. For work, I had to think about how to<br />
convert all class materials to the online environment, prepare graduating nursing students to enter<br />
the profession in the middle of a pandemic, and provide support to students as they struggled with<br />
a mode of education they did not sign up for or prepare for. So many balls up in the air and I just<br />
prayed that they would fall in line eventually.<br />
I met with faculty via video conferencing to discuss our next steps and how to move coursework<br />
to the online environment. The university was great at providing resources and training regarding<br />
teaching in the online environment. The nursing department was extremely fortunate to have most<br />
of the faculty using the learning management system (i.e., Blackboard) regularly for our classes.<br />
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Blackboard was used to post lecture PowerPoints, class resources,<br />
assignments, discussion questions, etc. It was primarily a place to house course material and submit<br />
assignments. Due to many factors the university decided that courses would be asynchronous. This<br />
meant students and faculty did not meet at a regularly scheduled time. Lecture material would be<br />
posted, and assignments would be submitted online by the due date.<br />
Pandemic and Us continued on next page >><br />
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