As we celebrate the Year of the Nurse in 2020, I could not be more proud to be a nurse and glad I chose this honored profession decades ago. Little did I know my past experience as a critical care nurse, such as the ability to deal with ambiguity, change, and emergency situations, would provide me the skills and resiliency to deal with the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) crisis today as a dean of nursing. Every day in critical care was a new and different day; I cared for new patients with different problems, issues, and interventions I had to deal with on the frontline. Being proactive, vigilant, and ready to embrace the challenges at hand were skills needed then and being used today in dealing with these unprecedented times as an academic leader in higher education. When I first heard we would need to totally transform our work and learning environment to a remote workplace and have all of our faculty and staff teleworking, I kicked into high gear getting prepared for the uncertainty and the unknown on what the next day would bring. This parallels my days in critical care when I cared for patients who could change every hour. I needed to anticipate and be prepared for those changes as I do today in leading a school of nursing.

My dean job now looks very different from what I had been doing over the past 5 years; the day-to-day work and challenges are not what I could have imagined just 6 months ago. I have spent hours in videoconference meetings; hosting town halls for students, faculty, and staff; and navigating through new issues on a daily basis, shifting from the old to the new normal. Many meetings are not only about dealing with the pandemic, but the changes we have to make because of the virus. With stay-at-home orders rendering all of our students, faculty, and staff remote, how can we best deliver the quality education and experiences needed by our students?

Reflecting on these past 2 months of deanship, I have identified a few lessons from what is going well due to my leadership, what needs to improve, and what has surprised even me, a veteran leader in higher education.

Lesson No. 1: Change is difficult, but it can be done easier through transparency, setting context for the deviations in what we are doing, and providing the resources associated with change. Becoming a remote workforce with all online programming happened with only days of notice, with little preparation for faculty and staff to make these major changes. Any new activities were explained by setting the context on what we were doing. What new resources would be needed because of this shift? Who needs to be involved? What other activities need to be created to fill the gap? Because of the pandemic, almost every activity and event we had been doing face-to-face had to be restructured or redesigned. Much thought and energy from the stakeholders were required in creating new ways to provide our students with the information, experiences, and support services due them. It is imperative to the success of the transformation that the critical support and required resources be identified and supplied.

Lesson No. 2: Building the culture and community within the school is important to demonstrate the care, value, and support for each other. In the flurry of all the change and needs of various constituents, creating and maintaining a caring culture based on service priorities around safety, care, and efficiency are important. To foster engagement within our community, weekly town halls were scheduled with faculty and staff, providing school and university updates on changes and activities based on COVID-19. The rest of the hour is available for questions from the audience. The opportunity allows me to hear from the faculty and staff their concerns, questions, and comments. It helps me to calibrate the morale, environment, and needs from my school team. The second month into the pandemic and sheltering at home, I also started "Fun Fridays" with faculty and staff. For 30 minutes on Fridays, through videoconferencing, faculty and staff get to relax, showcase their pets, and provide introductions of their children, weekly routines, and work-from-home spaces. We are all getting to know each other better on a personal front. In addition, student town halls are set up to hear students' voices, questions, and concerns. These town halls also enable leaders to check in and provide updates from the school and university.

Lesson No. 3: Setting clear expectations for a new normal realizing the roles and responsibilities of staff and faculty may look different not just now but permanently.

The loss of revenue due to COVID-19 has been devastating. Needing to reduce our planned budget by a certain percent while not reducing enrollment will change faculty's workload, some staff assignments, and certainly my role as a leader to ensure we are maintaining the integrity of our programs, support of our students, and instructional continuity for students to progress and graduate. The mantra we have adopted in our school is "students first." Our students come first-we have to do what is needed focusing on our mission of academics and research. With changes in assignments, temporary support, and new responsibilities, clear expectations on what and why this is being done are important. The value and care of the faculty and staff should not be forgotten. Ultimately, when building the community, we are a team and need to help and support each other and the mission/vision of the school.

Lesson No. 4: Throughout change and dealing with challenges, the leader has to be positive, creative, and grateful and manage the anxiety from the uncertainties. COVID-19, with all its uncertainties and fear, ends up making me a more positive and grateful leader, so much the better. We cannot go back to the way we were, but with this crisis, leaders put more priority on the essentials and necessities within the school to provide instructional continuity, student recruitment, and retention. With hiring freezes and budget cuts, leaders have to be creative, doing more with less and exploring strengths of individuals within the organization to see where "temporary support" can be found during this time of unprecedented crisis. Leaders need to create and influence the can-do attitude of serving and supporting, which are both necessary at this time. Authenticity of expressing the needs of the school with a reduced amount of resources has to be transparent-faculty and staff understand. Overall, I intend to come through this stronger, and I hope our entire faculty and staff workforce, our students, and faculty, staff, and students in other schools do too.