Maybe you want eshell then:

    ~ $ cd /ssh:tol-eressea:.
    /ssh:tol-eressea:/home/db48x $ ls
    db48x.net  libvirt-sandbox  rpmbuild  zone.sh  zone.sh~  zone.txt  zone.txt~

If you've set ssh up to use control sockets then it can reuse existing connections.

MOSH is also nice; it decouples the program you're running from your connection, just like screen does, and it also uses udp instead of tcp so that it doesn't have to worry about dropped connections. Even your client's ip address can change and everything keeps working.