Teaching During the COVID- 19 Pandemic: MHSA Faculty Experiences

ABSTRACT

In the Spring of 2020, faculty in our Master of Health Services Administration (MHSA) program were required to pivot to fully online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Faculty in our program are a mix of full-time academic and practitioner faculty, and our program is part of Kansas's only academic medical center. Using a qualitative descriptive design, this paper reports on findings from in-depth semi-structured interviews with all faculty (n=12) teaching during the Spring 2020 semester to understand their experiences as educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts yielded three key areas of COVID-19 impact (1) course logistics and communication, (2) faculty capacity and identity, and (3) the future of both healthcare and health administration education. Faculty reported increasing communication with students and encountering some logistical difficulties, but overall, they adapted to the online modality. Faculty also reported the necessity to learn from the COVID-19 crisis to address healthcare gaps, elucidate key course concepts, and better train healthcare administrators to be competent in handling rapid change and disruptive events.