No One Prepared Us for Graduate School during a Pandemic: Quick Tips for Graduate Students

By Jill Jacobson, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist

Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash

In this time of uncertainty, one thing is clear: This semester is not going as planned! I recently participated in an American Psychological Association (APA) webinar for psychology training directors, called “Nobody prepared me for training during a pandemic,” and I realized that many graduate students might also find that this webinar’s title resonates with them. Faculty and students have been gearing up for distance learning over the past few weeks, and thanks to colleagues from near and far, many helpful technology guides and self-care resources have been shared with students. As a faculty member and training director, I’m often struck by the passion, pro-activity, and perseverance of our graduate students. This semester I am once again in awe of the ways our students are navigating the current circumstances with resilience and creativity. Graduate students who are able to continue their training this semester may find the following tips helpful as they make the most of their training during this time. [For those that have been personally affected by illness or loss, please know that our hearts are with you.]

  • Pay attention to your emotions: It is normal to feel a wide range of both positive and negative emotions right now. Take time to reflect on your feelings and identify ways to cope. Everyone has been affected by the pandemic in some way, and we are all adjusting to these circumstances. Part of that process is modifying our expectations about what this semester will look like. Based on how you’re feeling and your unique situation, consider modifying your expectations for productivity.
  • Structure your time: The hours, days, and weeks are running together. Some of our typical daily rituals might have been lost–getting ready for work, packing your lunch, commuting to campus, attending meetings and class, going to the gym, etc. It can be helpful to add some structure back into your day, whether it’s through a full day schedule of activities, weekly or daily to do list, or simple ritual around writing or active time. Keeping a log of certain activities, such as your research, can help you stay focused, share your progress with others, and start up again quickly if you take time off.
  • Be a focused and helpful distance learner: In addition to familiarizing yourself with technology tools and following guidelines sent by your instructors, it’s important to participate fully in your online learning activities. We’re experts at multitasking, but try signing off email and putting away your phone while you’re completing class requirements. You’ll learn more and feel more productive! Keep in mind that many instructors are new to distance learning. If something isn’t working for you, please share your feedback in a constructive way, such as emailing your instructor with an idea for improvement.
  • Check in with your advisor and other key individuals: Since you won’t have the opportunity to pop into your advisor’s office for a quick meeting, you’ll have to find other ways to touch base this semester. Take a proactive approach and reach out to your advisor, supervisor, and other key individuals to check in and let them know what you’re working on. For example, set up a virtual meeting or send regular email updates. Importantly, let others know if and how your work is impacted right now–many of us are managing child/elder care, scheduling, and high stress. If you can’t complete work or make adequate progress, talk to your advisor or program director about your situation and document this communication.
  • Keep in touch with your classmates: Remember those quick chats between classes and topics you kept discussing long after class ended? The conversations that used to happen on the fly can (and should) still take place! Schedule time to video chat and share activities with your classmates. There are so many creative ways to connect, such as meeting for a meal over Zoom, sharing Google slides showcasing what you’ve been working on and doing outside of work, gathering for a Netflix party, and participating in virtual events hosted by your program. In addition to staying social during what can be a very isolating time, this will help maintain your sense of connection and engagement within the program.
  • Look for the silver lining: This semester your training has been marked by compromise and sacrifice, and it is normal for you to feel grief over the loss of the training experiences you were counting on. In addition to practicing self-care strategies, consider the silver lining: Is there something that you can learn this semester that you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to learn? What skills might you develop or enhance? For example, how can you use the time you are no longer commuting to/from campus? Perhaps there is a workshop now available as a webinar or at a discounted rate. You might also be able to contribute your skills and knowledge in a way that benefits the community, such as helping develop online modules or resources. As we’re adapting to distance learning, all of us have the opportunity to learn something new along the way.

Jill Jacobson, Ph.D., Assistant Clinical Professor, is the Director of Training for the School Psychology Doctoral Program at the University of Maryland–College Park. She is a Licensed Psychologist and Nationally Certified School Psychologist. Dr. Jacobson’s research and professional interests include effective supervision practices, school psychology training, and consultation.

Disability Resources for Students, Paid trainees, Faculty, and Supervisors during COVID-19

This post was authored by Dr. Angela Kuemmel of Louis Stokes VA Medical Center and Dr. Rebecca Wilbur of Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Q: I am a trainee with a disability that compromises my immune system and puts me at high risk for complications from COVID-19. Can I request reasonable accommodations even if I didn’t have them before COVID-19?

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission has updated their guidelines on PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS IN THE WORKPLACE AND THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT in response to COVID-19. Per these guidelines, employees with disabilities that put them at high risk for complications of pandemic influenza may request telework as a reasonable accommodation to reduce their chances of infection during a pandemic.  The Job Accommodation Network lists possible accommodations for individuals with suppressed immune systems or other disabilities. The Network also has resources specific to COVID-19 and the ADA.

Q: What resources for students with disabilities do you recommend?

Q: What resources can you share for educators and educators?

Who Has Authority to Write About an Ailing Body? Learning from Narrative Therapy and Medical Memoirs

In this post, I look at both narrative therapy and medical memoirs as forms of centering the patient’s experience of their own health. 

“Narrative therapy seeks to be a respectful, non-blaming approach to counselling and community work, which centres people as the experts in their own lives” reads the introduction to narrative therapy on the Dulwich Centre homepage, a great pitstop for anyone engaging in this style of treatment. 

Narrative therapy works on the basis of seeing people as distinct from their ‘problems’ or the issues that they bring to a psychologist or other psychotherapist. It works on the premise that people have identities that are multi-faceted, and the ailment that they face is only a part of who they are. Further, this school of thought favors the idea that “curious listening” to clients can give therapists a chance to facilitate healing through rich descriptions based on their clients’ stories. A rich description here can be understood as knowledge of the ailment as experienced by the patient with their own history of existence (and stories have a lot to contribute to a person’s existence). This emphasis on the patient’s agency to tell their story is common in narrative therapy and medical memoirs. 

A conventional definition of psychotherapy is a practice that helps someone “overcome their mental disorders and also aims for the betterment of the person”  (See Psychological Science). The definition is inverted when we understand psychotherapy to be more than merely solution-driven, as in narrative therapy. Here, the path of healing is travelled by both parties.  The facilitation of healing ceases from falling squarely on the therapist. 

We can now turn to medical memoirs for similar lessons. A first glance at this subgenre of life writings, gives one the impression that they are primarily physician narratives that speak of their experiences of an illness, or their patients’ experiences with illnesses. This, however, has been recently challenged.  Works like Amala Poli’s Writing the Self in Illness looks at the need for scholars and readers to look at memoirs with an experiential and caregiving lens. The writings go beyond a subservient purpose of offering physicians a stronger sense of the personhood/body in the state of illness. 

Poli writes: “The medical memoir is a counter narrative to medical discourses that takes the form of self-representation by foregrounding the experiential. The particular account of illness that the medical memoir articulates is indeed a way of reclaiming both the body and the self’s narrative of illness, but also one of expanding the understanding of health and illness in a language and form different from the one used in conventional medical discourse” (pg.  8). 

Poli’s ‘conventional’ here refers to the outlook that an ailing body or mind is the arena of the professionals. However, when the matter is of representation, the following question arises: Who has the authority to write about an ailing body? The current shifts in the field of medical humanities are expanding and rewriting the narrative to include the validity of memoirs by non-medical professionals and caregivers. The importance of self-tellings is marked by this shift in the meeting place of literature and medicine. 

The limited understanding of medical memoirs and use of narrative therapy restrict us from the plethora of knowledge that patient-narratives are bringing to the fore. By centering the experiential in our patients’ stories, medical memoirs and narrative therapy are both redefining how healthcare exists in and is perceived by the world. They offer the potential to highlight the patient at the center of interpersonal relationships, being in a relationship with their own ailing or aching body and mind. The centering of human stories leads to rich descriptions, collaborative healing, and a celebration of human agency. 

Dennis Wesley is an independent researcher and budding blogger. His interests include STEM and Humanities education, especially interdisciplinary practices and methods. He is equally passionate about the Sciences and the Arts, and mainly aims to present the pros of rigorous interdisciplinary training and processes. You can read more of his writing here.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness – Success!

There was no way for me to become a psychologist without taking out student loans, so my first day of graduate school was a blend of exhilaration about pursuing my vocational calling and dread over committing myself to loans that were much larger than any amount of money I had ever earned. Four years later I had a graduate degree, a network of inspiring colleagues, a postdoctoral fellowship, and six-figure debt.

I am now debt-free, thanks to successful completion of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, and writing to share my story in case it helps others. PSLF is designed to provide debt relief to individuals who work in public service jobs, including many of the career paths that psychologists pursue. After making 120 qualifying payments, the remaining student loan balance is forgiven.

As a psychologist in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), my employment met the certification requirements for PSLF, and I paid into an income-driven repayment plan, picking the best option for me from among the PSLF repayment types. Since my payments were income-driven, the payments increased over time as my income increased. I started paying during my postdoctoral fellowship, when my income was lower, which was a wise decision.

The paperwork, in my experience, was straightforward. There was no need for a lawyer or financial adviser. I worked for the VA (at two different locations) the entire time, which meant my paperwork was simple. Once per year, I completed forms to verify my income level. I filed my employer certification paperwork twice during the 10 years (once with each VA location), and then submitted the application for loan forgiveness at the end. I believe that the current recommendation is to file employer certification paperwork every year. Please check the PSLF website for official guidance.

Because of Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF) funding, I also received a refund of several thousand dollars. My first four student loan payments did not originally qualify for PSLF because I paid into the default loan repayment option, which was not a qualifying repayment type for PSLF. Thanks to TEPSLF, those initial payments were counted retroactively as qualifying payments, and thus my four final payments were refunded. When considering PSLF, make sure to check the official website for rules about which repayment plans qualify.

The monthly payments, though income-based, were significant and on par with my rent and monthly daycare bill. The amount I repaid came close to the amount that I borrowed, but because of interest, even after 120 payments, I had barely made a dent in the principal. Without PSLF, I was looking at another 15 years of paying back graduate school loans. PSLF has been life changing for me and my family. While the PSLF program honors the importance of public service rendered during the repayment period, the post-loan forgiveness stage allows even more freedom for values-driven career decisions.

My graduate education at The Wright Institute, focused on a clinician-to-society social justice model, has been invaluable and worth every penny. Because of the excellent instruction, empowerment, and role modeling I received in graduate school, I went on to develop a yearlong social cognition rehabilitation group for military Veterans with histories of traumatic brain injuries and psychological trauma that has been adopted at multiple VA medical centers nationwide and published in a peer-reviewed journal. I received funding for an Institutional Courage Initiative to study experiences of institutional betrayal and institutional courage among Veterans and VA health care providers, in an effort to improve the quality of care for Veterans and strengthen employee engagement. The PSLF is a gift of a lifetime that has allowed me a career focused on making the world a better place, while having the financial security to build my own life as well.

There are many reports in the media of the failures of the PSLF program, but for me it was a success. It worked for me, and it can work for you too.

Kelly McCarron, PsyD

Editor’s Note: For more information on repaying your student debt, check out the APA webinar: Public Service Loan Forgiveness: How You Can Get It and Why We’re Fighting to Preserve It or visit the Department of Educations’ page on Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Second Editor’s Note (updated 2/27/20): We learned via the New York Times that some people who may have been misled or misinformed by their loan servicer in pursuit of PSLF have been successful in using a little-known recourse called the Federal Student Aid Feedback System.