Nursing education moved from the hospital to the university almost a century ago. Now it may be time to make another move: from the university to home. Currently, faculty usually spend their 40-hour workweek divided between office and clinical settings. Most of us divide this time with 2 days in clinical settings and 3 days in the office, while others have either less or no clinical time. Thus, most full-time faculty spend at least 60% of their time on campus. This large amount of time on campus needs to be re-examined.
Ringing phones, frequent interruptions, and travel time all work against efficiency and productivity in the office. Most faculty prefer to work at home on projects requiring time and concentration, such as writing an article or grant application. Arranging that time is often difficult because some deans or department chairs are not comfortable with having faculty spend an entire day or 2 each week at home. With 1 or 2 days per week already committed to clinical teaching off-campus, it might mean faculty would be on campus only 1 day per week. At some colleges, the instructor must submit a written request to work at home. This process dampens the instructor's enthusiasm for trying to work at home.
My experiences working in my home office for 2 different colleges of nursing may be illustrative of things to come. For the first college, during the academic year 2000-2001, I spent about 4 days each week at home. I did not teach practicum courses, but I was the principal investigator on 2 large, federally funded grants, which took about 80% of my time. With the remaining time, I taught a course each semester that was totally Web-based, except for the first day of orientation. Exams were given in proctored computer labs throughout the state. My 2 projects had full-time coordinators to manage the daily activities of the project personnel. We kept in contact via phone, email, or instant messaging on at least a daily basis, and used the fax machine extensively. On days that I was on campus, meetings were scheduled with each project director, usually on a day to coincide with my university committee meetings. It was clear to all of us that my workload requirements were consistently met under this arrangement. However, it was my level of scholarly productivity that improved dramatically.
The following academic year, I joined a different college of nursing, where I now have the responsibility of being a specialty track coordinator in the doctor of nursing science (DNSc) program. This program is Web-based; students are on campus only 4 weeks per year. This university is located approximately 2 hours from my home, but the dean and I agreed to try an arrangement in which I, as a full-time faculty member, would teach and have all the other responsibilities of a faculty member, yet do it from a distance. We are constantly collecting data on this "experiment" to see if it truly is possible for faculty teaching in a distance education program, with distance education students, to also be at a distance. I travel to the university when the students are on campus and for an occasional special meeting. Once we have at least a year's worth of data, we will decide whether and how to continue the arrangement.
Working primarily at home has been a boon for both efficiency and productivity. With a college-supplied computer, printer, fax machine, and DSL line, I can do everything at home that I can do at the office. But I do not spend an hour getting ready for work, 30 minutes driving and parking, and 10 minutes getting to the office and settling in to get ready to work, with another 30-minute drive home in the evening. Now I walk from my bedroom in comfortable shorts and t-shirt to the office (a converted bedroom) and begin working. Each day I save at least 2 hours by working at home; doing this for 4 weeks yields an extra 40-hour workweek per month!
Being able to focus while at home is much easier than in the office. I use Caller ID to avoid solicitor calls; if I am involved intensely in a thought process, I ignore the phone and let the answering machine take a message, which I return as soon as possible. I can also play any type of music I want, at any volume, to help me concentrate without bothering my office suite mates. I can also go to the refrigerator at any time (although this may not be a positive thing for some people!).
The view outside my home office is much more calming and beautiful than that of my campus office. There is not much traffic, just birds, squirrels, grass, and trees. It's also nice to be home when packages arrive. Apart from deliveries, there are few interruptions, which contributes immensely to being able to focus and follow a train of thought for as long as needed.
Some people have asked how I meet my professional socialization needs, given that I do not see my colleagues often. I respond that there is always the phone, and I do go into the office on occasion. During those days on campus, I maximize my time with colleagues: I do not try to do scholarly writing, but instead focus on meeting with people face-to-face to do work that cannot easily be accomplished any other way. Our college also uses instant messaging for casual, "water cooler" conversations.
With the advent of online education, working at home is even more feasible. It also has many implications for campus infrastructure, committee work, and faculty employment. For example, why is a fully equipped campus office required for instructors who come to campus only 1 or 2 days per week? Would it not make more sense to equip the instructor's home office and assign 2 instructors per campus office, just to have a place for them to use a phone and put down their bags? Private meetings with students could be held in conference rooms. Bricks and mortar are often the most expensive part of a campus operation; thus, having educators do most of their work at home would save enormous amounts of new construction funds.
Who says committee work has to be done face to face? Businesses are already saving money by using desktop video conferencing (DVC) to hold meetings. We will be experimenting this year with using DVC as a means for me to participate in committee meetings. In the near future, I will even chair committee meetings from my home. DSL lines allow for rapid transmission of voice data to the extent that it is essentially a phone call, with a picture to accompany it, even if the motion on the picture does not have "real-time" fluidity. Conferencing software is already available for several people to be online at once, thus permitting all committee members to be at a distance and log in with a computer.
Faculty employment also may see rapid and important changes. Currently, most faculty are employed full time by one institution. In nursing education, we face a severe faculty shortage over the next 5 to 20 years. Some faculty have an area of interest or expertise that is fairly uncommon. They might teach in this area, but are often required to teach in other areas as well, because their expertise area is so narrow that it does not constitute a full workload of courses. Why not allow universities to share these instructors, and have them teach their favorite courses at more than one university? It would not be unreasonable to teach the same course to students on the West coast, the East coast, and the Midwest all in the same semester. Thus, a university would not be limited to using only the instructors whom they could persuade to move to their city. Given the faculty shortage, most, if not all, universities will have trouble attracting faculty to meet all their curriculum needs.
With apologies to comedian Jeff Foxworthy, here is my list of ways to tell if you have the potential for being a Stay-at-Home Educator:
* You can say "no" to your friends and relatives. When they find out you spend at least a few days each week working at home, they will be inclined to call upon you to baby-sit, run errands for them, or take a long coffee break. It's difficult, but essential, that they know that you are "at work," have deadlines, and cannot do nonemergency activities.
* You have no small children at home during the day. Children cannot understand that you have to focus on your work. They can distract you to the point that you will not get anything done.
* You have Caller ID. The biggest time-wasters at home are telephone solicitors, followed closely by friends who just want to "chat." I ignore any call that shows up as "unavailable" or "out of area." When friends call, I decide whether to answer it based on how close I am to a deadline or how important my train of thought is.
* You have a broadband Internet connection. When teaching online, there is far too much work to be done to have to wait long periods for each page to download. You won't be saving any time using a slow modem, and would probably be more productive at the office using the campus high-speed connection.
* You are reasonably savvy about computers. That is, you know what the "desktop" is, how to use the "save as" command, and where your software programs are located on your computer. If you have this modicum of knowledge, you can work effectively with your Help Desk when you call with problems. They probably won't send out people to work on your computer, so you need to be able to follow their instructions over the phone. If you don't know how to navigate around your computer, they will not be able to help you and everyone will end up very frustrated.
* You can figure out a way to remind yourself to take breaks. Without frequent interruptions, you may be able to work nonstop for hours. This, however, is bad for your eyes and joints. You need to take a short break at least every hour. I look at the clock fairly frequently and go out to water plants or check on the cat's whereabouts.
* You know how to do research on the Web. This is not research as in analyzing data, but research in terms of finding information. You will need a good dictionary (online or otherwise) plus access to journal articles, books, and newspapers. If you don't know how to use Google or other good search engines, your scholarship will suffer.
In summary, working at home is not for every instructor, but for many it may prove to be a big boost to scholarly productivity. It also has implications for energy conservation, reduced construction costs, and reduced traffic congestion. We need to experiment with different models of time on-campus and off-campus to determine what works best for individual instructors and colleges. It is definitely an exciting time to be in education.
Section Description
Guest Editorial