How has COVID-19 affected dental education
We truly are living in unprecedented times and our daily lives have changed for the foreseeable future. Parents are working from home, daycares are closed, and professional education is in a rapidly changing environment. The facts are that we are in a global pandemic with a virus we know very little about and the country is in “pause mode” until we can ramp up production of medical equipment, PPE, and allow the medical field to establish an appropriate response.
Dental school, although self admittedly is not a medical priority at this time has all but come to a grinding halt as state directives prevent elective medical procedures for the foreseeable future. I’ll do my best to give you an idea of how my dental school education has been affected and give a little insight to those already accepted to dental school or those thinking about applying in the near future. On March 11th, we received communication from our dean that in-person classes would be postponed for a few weeks, quickly followed up a few days later confirming that all didactic classes would move to an online forum for the remainder fo the semester (about 2 months). At the same time the school informed us that the clinics would remain open until further notice. On or around March 16th it was confirmed that pre-clinic (sim lab) and all clinics would be shut down for the rest of the semester. This resulted in personally cancelling 10-15 patients that I had scheduled for the remaining two months of my D2 year. The university established that all classes would remain online through the summer semester and we are waiting on the final directive for clinical practices. As of now I anticipate to be back in the clinic in the fall semester of my D3 year sometime during September 2020.
Information flow from the administration has been less than optimal and we still do not know what our summer didactic online class schedule will look like that starts May 5th. I say this fully aware that nobody has encountered this before and they are trying to alter our schedule and front load classes from our D3 and D4 years that can be adequately taught online this summer to free up some clinical space to make up for the lost experience this winter and summer semester.
A majority of my classmates have returned to their home of record for the reminder of summer, taking online classes, completing daily work and spending time with family. Personally I have been surprised by my online experience. I am enjoying spending more time at home with my 1 year old son allowing my wife who is an essential healthcare worker to work as she is currently in high demand. I am able to view prerecorded lectures at my leisure, complete requirements during my free time and plan my school around my life. Currently my life isn’t that exciting, but every Tuesday is my Costco/groceries run and Friday nights we have allocated to support the local restaurants by ordering take-out. As of right now my best guess is that we will be taking online classes until August (end of summer semester) and in early September at the beginning of the Fall semester we will start to get back to normal. I anticipate things will be VERY different in the clinic with respects to Personal Protective Equipment, patient management, distancing and other protective measures that help prevent the spread of this virus.
I will keep you updated on the progress here. If you are feeling unproductive, lonely or depressed here are a few tips that we have adopted to keep moving forward:
Make daily checklists: My categories include Academic, Personal, Physical and Family, everyday print out a blank goals list and write down what you want to accomplish in those categories.
Set up weekly happy hours with friends or classmates: Zoom, Facetime, IG Video, Google Hangouts are all platforms for this, put it on the schedule invite your friends and enjoy a drink and chat about your week. Nobody anticipated that on March 11th we were not going to see our classmates until September, keep in touch with your friends.
Exercise: Develop a workout plan, stick to it and record your workouts. This will show progress and it is good to have a log of workouts to choose from if you are having trouble getting motivated. If you are looking to get fitter, this is the perfect time. I am finding how important this is to maintain sanity while only leaving the house 1-2 times a week.
Professional Reading: Use this time to go back through all of those ADA, ASDA, Dental Economic magazines that have piled up on your desk over the past few years. Revisit a procedure you have come across in the clinic, read about business plans. This is the perfect time for self development.
Relax: When the day is done there is nothing wrong with turning on a little Tiger King, Ozark, Love is Blind or whatever your fix is. Be productive during the day so you can relax at the end of the day.
Keep in touch with family: This has been extremely important as our parents and grandparents get older. Give them a call or Facetime once a week just to say hi.
I hope everybody is doing well, we will get back to normal, stay positive, be patient and things will work out. Feel free to reach out via the link below if you have any questions, I always love getting feedback.