Resilience 101

During the darkest days of the pandemic, Rachel Drake ‘18 took care of patients in hospital hallways.

“There were some shifts I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do this another five, 10 or 15 years,’” said Drake, a physician assistant for EM Specialists, which staffs Kettering Health’s emergency rooms. “The pandemic gave me a new way of thinking about my calling, and I tried to focus on that: take care of yourself and take care of your patients.”

Elena Niese is also developing resilience as a student teacher in English language arts at Carroll High School in Dayton. “The lessons I’ve gained during the pandemic about flexibility, resiliency, self-care and caring for the whole student will make me a better teacher,” said Niese, who graduates in May with a degree in adolescent to young adult teacher education.

“Caring for the whole student will make me a better teacher.”

“It’s been difficult, but there have also been a lot of graces,” added Niese, who will talk about “what it means to live out your life as a higher calling” when she gives the spring commencement address.

Frontline health care workers and teachers have undergone more stress, burnout and turnover than other professionals during the pandemic, and the University of Dayton School of Education and Health Sciences is taking steps to equip students with coping skills not found in traditional textbooks.

For instance, the University of Dayton was the first in the country to offer The Healer’s Art course to physician assistant students, part of a new wellness requirement in the master’s degree program. In the course, they learn about self-care and the tools they’ll need to avoid burnout and strengthen their commitment to their patients. In other wellness offerings, students learn to practice mindfulness or yoga.

“We’re opening their eyes to other dimensions of wellness other than physical wellness.”

“We’re opening their eyes to other dimensions of wellness other than physical wellness,” said Lindsey Hammett, chair of the department of physician assistant practice, a highly competitive program that accepts 40 students for every 1,000 applicants.

“We teach students that they can step away and establish boundaries. While resiliency is a hard thing to teach, we’re giving them the tools to adapt and go forward,” said Hammett, who juggles administrative duties with working as a physician assistant one day a week. “COVID is not going away. We’re learning to live with it. Before COVID, it was the opioid crisis. Who knows what the stressors will be in the future?” 

The faculty in teacher education are instilling a mindset in tomorrow’s teachers to help stem high turnover and make them more resilient. With an Inspire Teaching and Learning grant from National University, they’ve embedded socio-emotional competencies throughout the curriculum, such as in the courses Teaching During COVID-19, Supporting the Whole Child in a Time of Crisis and Mindfulness for Educators.

“There’s no magic solution,” says Treavor Bogard, department chair. “Our students go into the profession because they consider it a vocation. They love working with children and their content area, but the pandemic has doubled the work” because of the challenges posed by hybrid classrooms.

Still, he’s optimistic. UD’s newly minted teachers enter classrooms better prepared than many new teachers because they complete 600 hours of field experiences — nearly double the required state number of hours — before they graduate. They also easily adapt to new technologies and have mentored their cooperating teachers in how to use electronic tools to increase student participation and break classes into smaller learning groups for more individualized attention.

“They inspire me. They will change the profession,” Bogard said.

“They inspire me. They will change the profession.”

Beyond helping teachers and healers build resilience and cope with stress, Ali Carr-Chellman, dean of the School of Education and Health Sciences, calls for greater empathy and respect, from the public to politicians.

“They want to change the world — all of them, even if it’s just for one person or just for one day. The more we respect teachers and healers as professionals, the more we support them, the more likely qualified and effective educators and health professionals will keep fighting the good fight.”