There have been many untold positive and challenging experiences for lecturers in adult nursing during the pandemic. We are two lecturers working at Middlesex University. One joined in a new position and the other had a new role as an assistant programme pathway leader for the September 2020 BSc adult nursing cohort. Both of us navigated our roles using different pathways and coping strategies in these ‘unprecedented’ times.
Over the now nearly 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been heavy reliance on regular online meetings over ‘Teams’ and ‘Zoom’ as well as numerous phone calls as the main forms of communication to get and to provide information. We have seen widely reported a great feeling of being overwhelmed and ‘Zoomed-out’ during many online meetings with colleagues and students—our university emphasised the importance of having breaks for staff to stretch and take their refreshment and bathroom breaks.
COVID-19 has brought the new norm of remote working as well as the option of working in the office with strict social distancing guidelines. Lecturers and students had to quickly adjust to blended learning with both online learning and face-to-face teaching. Teaching new students, particularly those who started their course during the pandemic, presented experiences that were challenging but also rewarding. We initially met our first year students online, and our students were learning from lecturers they had never met in person. Although virtual teaching of theory via online meetings became the norm, student nurses require certain practical skills that needed to be taught in person via our clinical skills lab. As lecturers, coming face to face while wearing masks and not able to recognise each other was an almost surreal experience. Who was the lecturer and who was the student only became apparent when we stood in front of our respective small groups. There were parallels for us as lecturers with the student experience, between our expectations for ourselves as lecturers and for our students, and their expectations in turn.
The academic challenges for us as lecturers included combining teaching and scholarly activities, with maintaining personal wellbeing and work-life balance. We were more likely to work longer hours, which included evenings and weekends. There were opportunities to develop, both personally and professionally, but setting realistic objectives required being adaptable—it needed flexibility and fluidity. Some of the ways we were able to adapt our work-life balance came through supporting each other using our different yet similar experiences and expertise. One of us was well acquainted with the Middlesex University environment, and the other was transitioning into the role of lecturer in adult nursing within a university environment. One of the solutions was to develop expertise by supporting and learning from each other and colleagues. Many new concepts, acronyms, and learning platforms emerged and networking within the organisation as well as outside the organisation became even more significant. We also used the Pomodoro Technique, which encouraged us to work with the time we had—this involves setting timers for regular intervals (such as 25 minutes) to work on a task with short scheduled breaks in between, which has been effective.
The impact of COVID-19 on people of colour and its implications for teaching and learning platforms provided new insights. The Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum, talking about race, racism, and decolonisation of the curriculum, among other topics, became discursive. Uncomfortable conversations among academics, students and other nurses became blurred and barriers were crossed over and back again. There was much bringing to the fore of role models of colour, positive or negative, whether as part of raising awareness, the learning process, healing process, or political outrage. For us as lecturers, striking that balance between being objective and critical without criticising, being vocal without offending, finding allies on both black and white fronts became part of the untold truth.
The important work that the university has done with the vaccination programme, collaborating with colleagues including in the NHS, overseas collaborative working such as a project in Zimbabwe on palliative care, and increased student engagement using virtual learning spaces have all contributed to the unique experience of working as a lecturer during the COVID-19 era.