Surviving the First Year as New Faculty during a Pandemic

Mentors

Request a mentor/preceptor right away. I was assigned to a faculty member who had taught for many years and knew the program inside out. We quickly developed a strong working rapport, and this has literally been my lifeline. I have had positions in the past where my mentor and I was not a good match. If I were to run across this situation again, I would not hesitate to request another preceptor. Along with my assigned mentor, I also found that seeking out other faculty that was relatively new to their positions was a big help. Since they had recently navigated the role of new faculty, they were able to offer some indispensable advice.

Research

Find out everything you can about the program. I found that reviewing a curricular gap analysis provided a good review of course content to meet the NONPF essentials. Adding your college’s specific program outcomes was also enlightening. I came into a program that was preparing for a CCNE accreditation visit; so much of the content about the inner working of our program was readily available. It was time consuming, but a valuable endeavor. Request to review syllabi and other material from established faculty; study the course progression and content. Not all faculties are comfortable sharing their intellectual property, so you will need to get permission, but this is a good way to see what your colleagues are teaching so you can build on the momentum that your students have in progress.

I found that the more experienced faculty was wonderful about sharing their work; nurses are such generous, caring people. I had several excellent syllabus examples to review, and exemplary course designs, which gave me solid direction for the hybrid model that the university is using during the pandemic. This assisted me in course preparation and my students were able to continue using a format that was familiar to them, increasing their participation and ultimate success. The key take away here is that I had to seek people out to help. Asking for help was humbling, but the response was always positive and helpful.

IT Resources

Make friends with your IT department. Our university uses the Desire to Learn (D2L) software. The expert who is assigned to the nursing faculty has been indispensable. When setting up the course shell, learning to create videos, uploading tests, and the grade book, I required a significant amount of guidance. I honestly do not know how I would have survived without this assistance. This is an ongoing relationship, as I still have so much to learn, but connecting with the expert to prepare the online content has been a game changer in my course development. The college has a center for excellence in teaching and learning available to faculty. This was another resource that I found valuable.

Student Relationships

The reason one goes into academia is to ensure the success of the students. Since my students were moving through a curriculum progression that was new, there were glitches identified along the way. By making frequent checks with the students about how things were going turned out to be very valuable. Hearing first-hand the students’ perspective gave me insight into their learning needs and how to better meet them. This evaluation provided a mutual benefit, though it required me to apologize on more than one occasion as I was enlightened to gaps that were brought to my attention.

Professional Development

It will soon be time to address the end-of-year report for my professional development plan (PDP). Though warned by my colleagues about being too ambitious in my first year, I will have gaps in meeting some of the goals. It reminds me to be more precise with what I can realistically accomplish in next year’s PDP. I will have to forgive myself for not meeting all the goals. I honestly gave it my best shot - I hope the dean sees that I, like my students, remain a work in progress.

In closing, I hope I was enough – and did enough. I hope the students in my guidance were able to grasp the vital content they will need to survive as advanced practice nurses, whether they choose to move into a clinical practice setting, leadership role, or joining the halls (or zoom rooms) of academia. I hope I was enough.