Project (e)mergency Remote Instructional Skills Enhancement (e- RISE): Implications to Nursing Education in Times of a Global Health Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic urged higher learning institutions to initiate an agile response to ensure quality online teaching and learning. In response to the challenges of transitioning from traditional to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers explored the lessons uncovered from the (e)mergency Remote Instructional Skills Enhancement (e-RISE), an intervention that comprised a series of faculty mentoring sessions towards full adoption of an online platform for professional nursing courses. This action research utilized the Look, Think, Act cycle of Stringer (1996) involving eleven nurse faculty as participants. Using thematic analysis, various themes were revealed such as advancing technological knowledge and competence, accepting personal limitations, values acquisition, and teacher empowerment. Firstly, the technological knowledge and competence of the nurse faculty require further improvement. Secondly, the acceptance of personal limitations in terms of putting up online learning modules implies the need to enhance pedagogy and design. Values acquisition in terms of life skills was also dominant in response to the need to change and adapt during the pandemic- challenged teaching and learning. As another significant finding, reverse mentoring is highly recommended to sustain Project e- RISE. To make remote teaching and learning more feasible, effective, and efficient, teacher empowerment must be prioritized. Generally, the study findings suggest that Project e- RISE may be adopted by institutions of higher learning as a sustainable mechanism to capacitate the nurse faculty in their migration from traditional to remote teaching.