Teaching Modalities in Nursing Education: Experiences, Challenges, and Coping Strategies of Educators During the COVID-19 Pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64397/nepj.v01i02.2025.a14Keywords:
Nursing education, Flexible learning, Online instruction, coping strategies, COVID-19Abstract
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic forced university institutions across the globe to make a sudden transition into the realm of flexible learning. In the Philippines, such change presented peculiar challenges to nursing educators who had to preserve the quality of instruction even in the absence of face-to-face classroom interaction.
Aim: This study explored the experiences, challenges, and coping strategies of nursing educators in the College of Nursing of a state university in Mindanao, Philippines, during the first semester of Academic Year (AY) 2020-2021.
Methods: A qualitative phenomenological design was used to collect the data on eight participants in semi-structured online interviews and thematically analyze it within the six-step framework outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006). Following the ideas of the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping by Lazarus and Folkman (1984), the following three themes were identified: (1) navigating pedagogical disruption and cognitive-emotional adjustment, (2) enduring institutional and instructional strain in online nursing education, and (3) reframing stress through adaptation, empathy, and institutional support.
Results: The results showed that although flexible learning first interfered with the conventional teaching habits, it also engaged educators in reflective adaptation, professional development, and resilience.
Conclusion: The study highlights the need to have institutional empathy, fair digital infrastructure, and ongoing faculty training to maintain a vibrant and caring nursing education in a rapidly changing learning world.
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