Thriving During a Pandemic as a Pre-Health Student

We find ourselves in interesting times. At home, on your couch, trying to figure out how to get

everything submitted in D2L and re-watching your professors' pre-recorded lectures while debating whether or not you should put on real pants today was not how you anticipated you'd be spending the last month of your Spring 2020 semester. You had plans to get more shadowing hours between classes this semester...to do more volunteering here in Rapid City...to apply for research positions, internships, and summer programs...to bring up your GPA after having a tough Fall semester...to attend a few pre-health events or Grand Rounds on Friday mornings at the local hospital. Some of you were planning to take the MCAT or GRE. Some of you were working on your personal statements and preparing for the application process. Then along came a virus...something so small and yet powerful enough to throw all of our lives into a chaotic state of uncertainty. Shadowing has been suspended almost everywhere. Volunteer opportunities have dramatically shifted. Summer programs are in flux. Many internships/research projects have been cancelled. Testing facilities are shutting down. Classes are abruptly moving to online formats. Events are being cancelled. No one is sure how much longer we will need to be socially distanced from other people and everyone is flying by the seat of their pajama pants. If you were to tell yourself a year ago that you'd be where you are today, you would have told yourself to stop watching so many movies about pandemics. Sure, we all knew that there were possibilities that something like this could happen, but few were actually prepared for the current situation and even fewer could have ever accurately envisioned how it would look for people in your positions. Like I said...interesting times.

As a pre-health student, you spend a lot of time thinking about your professional development. You have to if you want to be competitive as an applicant and prepared for a career in a field as demanding as healthcare. You now find yourself faced with some major obstacles to your professional development (as described above). Throughout your career as a healthcare professional, you will find yourself facing obstacles with no clear path to a resolution. You'll have patients who are difficult to diagnose. You'll have cases where the textbook treatment doesn't work. You may face logistical challenges with not having the specific tools you need to get the job done right and you'll have to be able to improvise. You'll have to make difficult decisions, sometimes without a lot of information to help you feel confident that you are making the best or right one. The lives of healthcare workers are filled with challenges and people in this field have to be adaptable to thrive in it. So here you are...facing your own big challenges and needing to be flexible and resilient as you confront those challenges.

But what does that even look like for a pre-health student? How do we move forward with so many things in flux and no clear understanding of when (or even if) things will get back to normal?

Time to troubleshoot!

Let's start with shadowing. You had planned on getting something set up or maybe you DID set something up, but it's been suspended for the foreseeable future. You know shadowing is important, so what do you do now? The short answer: Move it down on your priority list. Yes, it is still important, but there are other things that should be holding your attention right now and keep in mind that healthcare systems are overwhelmed, so workers have a million other things that need their attention right now. Your professional development is not a priority to people who are on the front lines of dealing with a public health crisis (nor should it be). While it is okay to feel disappointed, try to remember that this isn't about you and it doesn't mean that your whole future is in jeopardy. The fact that shadowing isn't available right now is beyond your control. Recognize that it's just not something you can do right now and don't spend your precious mental energy worrying about it. Instead, focus your attention on things you CAN control or things you CAN do during this crisis and do those things. Depending on how the situation develops, you can plan to do some shadowing in the fall or maybe next spring. If you are planning to apply this cycle, you really should have been shadowing sooner, but again, you can't change how things are now, so check that shadowing stress at your makeshift office door. (You can always contact schools later in the cycle to report new shadowing if you are able to get some before interview season starts. If you can't get any shadowing in, then focus on the other strengths that you have in your application.) In the meantime, find other ways to grow professionally, such as reading more about your field (I can send you a reading list or some suggestions if needed), attending webinars and virtual career fairs (find information about those in your This Week in Pre-Health e-mails), or finding new volunteer opportunities.

Speaking of, let's talk volunteerism in the time of social distancing. You probably can't continue https://www.volunteermatch.org/covid19 If you are in South Dakota, be sure to check out Helpline Center to find other ways to help your community during these interesting times: https://www.helplinecenter.org/  There's lots of ways to help and as a future healthcare professional, there's no better time for you to be serving your community. Do it because it is the right thing to do, but don't forget to log your volunteer hours so that you don't have to try to recall this blur of a semester later down the road with nothing but a fuzzy and overwhelmed memory to guide you.
volunteering at your local clinic/hospital or if you were planning to start that this semester, I'm guessing those plans have now changed. Like shadowing, this is outside of your control and you don't want to be more of a burden than a help during a public health crisis. If you have training or skills that are useful, then put those to good use. Help your community as an EMT or CNA wherever those kinds of certifications are needed. If you don't have healthcare-specific training, there are still lots of other ways to help. You can make PPE if you are a little bit crafty or organize community efforts to gather and distribute donations of supplies if you aren't. You can volunteer through textlines for suicide prevention or make courtesy calls to people in assisted living centers to help them make arrangements for getting prescriptions, groceries, or other things that they need without putting themselves at risk. Here's a great website with some additional information about volunteering remotely:

So, what about summer plans? Maybe you are still holding summer plans to attend workshops, conferences, training programs, or to engage in research. That's great if things are still moving forward as planned, but if those things have changed or been cancelled (or if they change/cancel in the future) try not to be discouraged even if you feel disappointed. Here's another chance for you to get creative in how you can grow professionally despite the loss of an opportunity. Keep seeking out resources and look for remote opportunities to get some training or develop your skills. Remember that EVERYONE is dealing with these changes, so there are a lot of new opportunities popping up every day in digital spaces to compensate for the loss of in-person events and programs.

While we are on the subject of adapting to digital spaces, let's talk about the big switch to online course formats. There's understandably a lot of anxiety surrounding this sudden and unexpected move from face to face classes to an all-online semester. No one was prepared to do this, so you aren't alone if you are feeling overwhelmed. Even your professors are experiencing those kinds of feelings. Remember that these are NOT your typical online classes. No one had time to build a really great online version of their course in the week between learning that they needed to move all of their content and adapt their teaching style and actually making that transition with their students after the extended spring break. Many of you (and your professors) are using things like Zoom for the very first time.
It's okay to fumble a bit as you make this transition. It's okay to not know how to move forward. There is no manual for this. No established protocols. We are all improvising. It may help you to reframe this a bit as an exercise in dealing with sudden, unexpected changes like those you will likely experience as a healthcare worker in the future. You can also think of this as unscheduled preparation for professional training, as many medical schools and other health programs record their lectures and allow students to watch them on their own and make their own schedules rather than requiring that they attend every class. These uncertain times are a good way for you to get some real experience in practicing self-discipline and honing your time management skills in addition to challenging you to creatively problem-solve. Also, we are all in this together and SD Mines has lots of incredible people working hard to help you face these challenges. The Student Success Center has put out some great videos (though I'm more than a little bias on that front) and has collected other resources for helping you to navigate these changes. Check them out here: https://www.sdsmt.edu/Academics/Student-Success-Center/Resources-for-Online-Learning/

Finally, for those of you currently preparing to apply to professional programs this cycle...Do Not Panic. The Pre-Health Pathways office is here to help you in any way that we can. Check your This Week in Pre-Health e-mails to get the latest updates and information from testing centers, centralized application systems, and professional programs about policy changes and responses to COVID-19. E-mail questions or set up Zoom meetings with your advisors or mentors. Don't be afraid to ask for help and gather all of the information that you can as you prepare your application.

I'll leave you with this final quote that I'm sure many of you bookworms have already thought about during these interesting times we are living in:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

--J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

TLDR: Re-focus on the things you can do. Do the best that you can with what you've got to work with. Take advantage of your resources. Don't panic. And ask for help. You've got this! ;)