Challenges Faced by Digital Immigrant Nurse Educators in Adopting Flexible Learning Options during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many educational institutions to shift to flexible learning options (FLO), which require technology in teaching. Digital immigrant nurse educators, who are educators born before 1985, may need help adopting FLO due to their limited knowledge and skills in technology. This study aims to explore the experiences of digital immigrant nurse educators' challenges in adopting FLO as a teaching strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This study employed a qualitative phenomenological research approach. Six digital immigrant nurse educators who had at least ten years of teaching experience in the nursing institution at the College of Health Sciences of Mindanao State University in Marawi City, Philippines and had expressed difficulty in adopting FLO as a strategy were purposively selected and interviewed during October 2021 to April 2022. Interviews were conducted through a scheduled Zoom meeting. For this purpose, an interview guide with open-ended questions was used. Colaizzi’s method of analysis was applied to analyze the data.   Results: This study identified four themes that represent the challenges digital immigrant nurse educators face in adopting FLO. The themes are lack of technological knowledge and skills, difficulty adjusting to new teaching methods, inadequate technological resources, and emotional stress and exhaustion.  Conclusion: Given the challenges experienced by Filipino digital immigrant nurse educators in integrating FLO amid the pandemic, this study recommends providing support and resources to improve the technical knowledge and skills of these nurse educators and continuing education to integrate FLO to achieve successful teaching practices.