Question 1:
Hi upper years! I'm hoping for some advice on how to get through 2A. I know the material is getting harder but I've honestly become more and more apathetic. Definitely burnt out from 8 months of school, starting these challenging courses and applying for coop jobs. I've been so distracted and stressed but don't really know how to get through this rut. Any advice would be wonderful.
Answer:
Hello, I’m sorry to hear that you’re feeling so burnt-out from school. It’s definitely normal to feel burnt-out at this point, and I know it doesn’t seem like much consolation now, but you’re almost there! It may differ for you, but I personally took comfort in knowing that I was not alone. Many of your peers will feel this way and if you have people close to you, that you feel comfortable talking with, I implore you to discuss it with them—it can be comforting to know and hear that other are feeling the same way, and to discuss personal coping strategies.
In terms of advice, I think this can be a helpful article for discussing burn-out:
https://www.aafp.org/fpm/2016/0100/p28.html
Make time for yourself and find work-life balance. You’ve probably heard this over and over again, but I find the article is helpful in breaking things down and a lot of their ‘tools’ go hand-in-hand. One of the strategies they discuss is making yourself a ‘life-calendar.’ Personally, I find that scheduling (although daunting at first) can be extremely helpful for maintaining a work-life balance. At the beginning of each term, I find it helpful to write down all the big and important dates into my calendar/agenda (i.e. assignments/midterms, etc.). Then each week, I look ahead at what is being done, what will be due and I give myself manageable goals for each day (i.e. study pathophysiology or med-chem). It may take a while for you to figure out what ‘manageable goals’ are for yourself and your needs (every one studies and learns differently—don’t be discouraged if at first, you load up your calendar and realize that you can’t do all of IPFC in 2 days—I say this from experience, because it took me a while to understand what was reasonable for myself and my learning needs). Most importantly, schedule yourself in time for yourself each day—whether it’s reading, watching TV, exercise (which I highly recommend, because exercise can be highly therapeutic) or whatever it is you need to do to de-stress. I realize that they’ll be days where you can’t schedule as much time for yourself (i.e. midterms), but try do give yourself time to unwind each day.
Scheduling is also helpful for when you want to have time for your social outings (or stay-in nights). If you know you’re going to use a specific night to blow-off steam, try to make sure the major things are done before it, so you can actually enjoy the outing/event itself (if you can’t do it before, make time in your schedule for after the outing to do what needs to be done, without leaving everything to the last minute or overloading yourself).
I sincerely hope you find this helpful, everyone is different so my strategies might not work for you or you may need to make changes to better suit yourself and your lifestyle. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us!
___________________________________________________________________________
Question 2:
Hello, I am a 2A student and it is just the first week of school and I am so tired. I am extremely tired of school. I know I can do it but it is beyond my mind that the school, as an organization, is satisfied with the 12 months of studying nonstop. I know I am not the only student feeling this way. I love learning, but the motivation and the desire is purely gone. Profs speak about mental health but students' mental health are the last thing on their minds. I am overworked, I am burnt out and it is really frustrating. I want to know ways that I can push through this semester, because I cannot seem to find any way. Everything is piling up and just looking at the calendar for the few months ahead is extremely overwhelming.
Answer 1:
Hello, I’m sorry to hear you are feeling this way about school. I agree that the 2A term really starts to weigh down on mental health and it can be frustrating, as you said, when you are still trying to perform as well as you can. As someone who had gone through the first three terms almost exclusively online, I found some tricks to help me get through the term. Firstly, know when to stop studying. Pushing through work when you don’t feel like it or when you can’t memorize anymore isn’t productive studying. I used to have it in my head to work as much as I can each day but if one day I only work 3 hours because that’s all I can handle then that’s good enough. Secondly, divide your work each day. With IPFC taking most of the workload, try to spend part of each day working on it, but to avoid neglecting your other classes, take a bit of time to work on a second class each day. It’s also hard to focus on one class all day. Lastly, study with friends. This might be hard with the pandemic, however getting through courses like PK, IPFC and Professional Practice are less daunting when you learn by teaching each other. It’s especially useful for counselling and getting all the last details for IPFC. I hope this helps you navigate the 2A term.
Answer 2:
I found that taking more time away from school to do things I enjoy helped me to focus when I was studying, and improved my mental health. 12 consecutive months of school is tough, and it’s okay to struggle through it, but know you are not alone. I found that speaking with my classmates about how much I was struggling really helped, because I found out that many of them felt the same way. I also reached out to our academic advisors, who arranged for me to receive accommodations after surviving a traumatic incident. Talking about how I was feeling and accepting that my feelings were valid helped change my perspective about school. I’m not going to lie, my marks took a hit but I survived a term where I felt my challenges were insurmountable and I was unsure I was going to make it through. Being vulnerable about what I was going through and accepting help from my academic advisors, professors, and Campus Wellness helped me get by. I also felt that nobody cared about my mental health, but I realized that nobody would be able to help if I didn’t take the first step to reach out. You need to put yourself and your wellness before school. Please reach out to somebody to chat, whether that is one of our mentors, Kaitlin or Becky, Campus Wellness, a friend, or family member. Sometimes getting an outside perspective helps us refocus on what is important, and teaches us new strategies to cope with the challenges we are facing. Hopefully you will be able to rediscover your passion for learning by taking the focus off of school and your performance and instead focusing on yourself and your wellness.
Answer 3:
I am very sorry to hear that you are having a tough time, I know how hard it is to be in school for back-to-back semesters. I think it’s really important to know your limits when it comes to school, and to be able to take a well-deserved break when needed. It’s important to make sure you are not overworking yourself (which is much easier said than done). I find that during stressful times, something that helps me relax is to schedule in daily interests. For example, I always try to end my day with a reward such as watching a few episodes of my favourite TV series before I go to bed. This encourages me to finish my work and it also allows me to unwind at night and end my day with an enjoyable task. I also think it’s important to vocalize your stress and worries to friends and family members. Communicating your struggles and difficulties with others can really help you get things off your chest and receive insight and advice from the ones you love and trust. Peers are also a great resource to reach out to. Like you mentioned, many of us have experienced feelings of hopelessness on our journey and our peers are effective resources to reach out to for support. Simply being able to talk to someone who can relate to your feelings/circumstances may help to relieve some weights off of your shoulders. I hope that you will reach out to resources or find other ways to navigate this situation that are effective for you. At the end of the day, no one knows you better than yourself, and your own health and wellness should be the priority.
___________________________________________________________________________
Question 3: What is the best way to study for IPFC? I’m getting really worried at how much content there is to know and whether I’ll be able to remember everything. Any advice would be appreciated.
Answer 1:
Thank you for reaching out to RxPRN! The academic transition to 2A can be challenging. As you had indicated, there is a lot of content that is covered in IFPC. Personally, I found that learning therapeutic topics without contextualization made it even more difficult. With that being said, a few study strategies could include studying in a small group with your classmates to help identify the information that you know and you don’t know, practicing patient cases to better understand how all the concepts are related, or making summary notes to identify the main concepts of the therapeutic topics.
It’s also important to note that you have already made it through the first couple terms. The quick transition to the academic curriculum was no easy feat, so I would recommend continuing to use the strategies that have worked best for you. One of the benefits of having virtual lectures is being able to adapt your study schedule to what works best for you – to maximize the time that you are most productive, to take breaks when needed, and to coordinate studying around your everyday life. I hope one of these strategies will be of potential use!
___________________________________________________________________________
Please do not hesitate to reach out for one-on-one mentoring with a student:
GIFs to brighten your day :)
Hozzászólások