Rutgers Nursing Magazine - Summer 2020

T The spring 2020 semester at Rutgers School of Nursing was moving along to the usual rhythms of academic life. That was until early March, when news of a new strain of coronavirus—at that point, a distant threat to New Jersey—had begun to spread and was inching closer to home. The unraveling of events, at this point, is familiar to everyone—public, private, and academic institutions across the country began to close, altering daily life as everyone knew it. By early March, ahead of the governor’s official stay-at-home order, Rutgers School of Nursing had joined those ranks, and in record time had shifted to remote instruction and operations. Quick Transition to a New Normal In a matter of a week, School of Nursing had transitioned more than 165 courses to remote format, expanded the use of virtual simulation for undergraduate students, and switched to providing services and support for the SON community remotely. Most of this done from people’s homes, under lockdown orders. L E A D E R S H I P E X C E L L E N C E In the face of a global pandemic, School of Nursing