The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected both healthcare delivery and educational systems for the next generation of nurses. The safety precautions instituted against COVID-19 such as social distancing, isolation and quarantine, and granular and country-wide lockdowns forced nursing schools to physically close (Ferrara et al., 2021; He et al., 2021), to adapt the remote work or work from home setting, and to shift from face-to-face to online teaching (Geraghty, Oliver, & Wang, 2022). In the Philippines, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Order No. 4 Series of 2020 (CHED, 2020) made flexible learning the primary method of instruction in both private and government-owned institutions starting mid-2020. Although the shift in educational paradigm and workplace setting helped in curbing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in academic institutions, the abrupt changes gave learners and educators new experiences and challenges which had substantial impact on individual- and organization-level outcomes (Assunção Flores & Gago, 2020).

Work from home (WFH) became the “new normal” for nurse educators as they taught students virtually in the confines of their homes (Ahmed, Qamar, & Soomro, 2022). Defined as a remote work arrangement where educators or employees work from their place of residence (Al-Habaibeh, Watkins, Waried, & Javareshk, 2021), work from home has certain advantages and disadvantages (Galanti, Guidetti, Mazzei, Zappalà, & Toscano, 2021). Ideally, remote work involves careful preparation, design, and adaptation to ensure work-life balance without compromising employee productivity (Allen, Golden, & Shockley, 2015). Nevertheless, the immediate need to shift to this remote work arrangement obligated nurse educators to modify their households despite the lack of knowledge, skills, and resources necessary for a work from home setting (Galanti et al., 2021). Studies have shown that most employees who adapted this working arrangement did not have an ergonomically adjusted workplace (Ahmed et al., 2022) and suffered several negative outcomes such as physical impairment, stress, psychological detachment, feelings of isolation and loneliness (Memon et al., 2022; Seva, Tejero, & Fadrilan-Camacho, 2021; Xiao, Becerik-Gerber, Lucas, & Roll, 2021). Ergonomics in the context of work from home, therefore, is an important job concept to promote organizational and employee productivity, performance, and outcomes (van der Voodt & Jensen, 2021; Xiao et al., 2021).

The adaptation of a work from home setting does not only affect the employee, but also the family members who must adjust to the new work arrangement. Home environment or family functioning, defined as a multidimensional concept of the social and structural properties and dynamics of families to achieve and satisfy their physical and psychological needs and to function and thrive as a group (Georgas, 2003), has been greatly affected by the pandemic and the changes in workplace setting. The COVID-19 pandemic has instilled fear and stress among families, including nurse educators, and disrupted the routines, dynamics, and experiences of family members (de Figueiredo et al., 2021; Pachter et al., 2020). Families had to deal with multiple responsibilities such as childcare and schooling, economic uncertainty, health uncertainty, and other family-related stressors (Canady, 2020; Fontanesi et al., 2020). To add to all these, the integration of work at home further altered the dynamics of the family and household (Wu, Song, Proctor, & Chen, 2022). For resilient families or households, stronger familial bonds and cohesion, coping skills, and health behaviors are nurtured throughout the experienced ordeal (Cho, Moon, & Yun, 2021; Gayatri & Irawaty, 2021). However, not all families adapt positively to these changes and some experience disagreements, conflicts, and degradation of their sense of belongingness (Gayatri & Irawaty, 2021; Novitasari, Sasono, & Asbari, 2020).

Noting the benefits of ergonomics and home environment in achieving positive organizational outcomes, it is imperative to explore their associations with work performance among nurse educators, a subpopulation of employees which has not received sufficient attention as they transition to remote work arrangements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, in a collectivist country such as the Philippines where the family is highly cherished and holds greater value over one's career or work, maintaining work-life balance can be extremely challenging, especially when both work and family lives coincide in a single setting. Hence, this study determined the influence of ergonomics on the individual work performance of Filipino nurse educators working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and developed a model illustrating the moderating effect of home environment on the association of ergonomics and individual work performance. In particular, this study answered the following questions: (1) what is the influence of physical, cognitive, and organizational ergonomics on individual work performance; (2) what is the parsimonious model illustrating the influence of physical, cognitive, and organizational ergonomics on individual work performance; (3) what is the moderating effect of home environment on the association of ergonomics and individual work performance; and, (4) what is the parsimonious moderated model illustrating the moderating effect of home environment?