Read on Twitter
Hi All! I am super stoked to share with you our preprint on how graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (PDFs) in Canada conducting laboratory-based research were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic! (Please join me for a thread below for highlights!
) https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-59050/v1
) https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-59050/v1
First off, Iâd like to thank all the 315 folks who took the time to complete our survey and interviews with us. Thank you for sharing your stories and heartbreak with us. It has been a privilege to learn from your experiences. This wouldnât be possible with all of you.
When thinking about how to best represent the experience of grad students & PDFs experiencing lab shutdowns, we decided to do a mixed-methods analysis. This would help us get some numbers to get a sense of scale, while also being able to share the narratives of respondents.
We asked graduate students and PDFs about their experiences during three different time points: During the shutdown process, while working from home, and their future outlook of returning to the lab.
Folks described the time leading up to the shutdown and during the shutdown as chaotic. This was attributed to a lack of clear and consistent communication between and within research institutions. This, and abrupt changes in policy, lead to confusion, uncertainty, & anxiety.
When asked what they would do differently if they could go back and do over the shutdown process, respondents would change 3 things: 1. Stop experiments sooner (rather than being cut off), 2. Clearer communication, and 3. They would have brought more things home from the lab
Side note: Most respondents didnât bring as much home (personal items, data, technology, etc) because they didnât think the shutdown would last for as long as it has. They were thinking more short-term shutdown than long-term.
We also looked at how folks responded differently when they had a uniform or staggered laboratory closure. We defined âuniformâ as a situation where people stopped working around the same time, while âstaggeredâ had some people working at home and others still in the lab.
Although both uniform and staggered groups reported anxiety from the shutdown, the source of the anxiety was different. Also, folks from uniform closure cited a feeling of solidarity and safety that developed â the same wasnât reported from staggered closure situations.
We asked if folks felt any pressure to continue experiments. More grad students and PDFs cited internal pressure to continue working than external pressure from supervisors or peers. This was tied to a fear of losing time or data. #PublishOrPerish
That being said, 34% of respondents said they received some level of pressure from their supervisor to continue working â most saying that their PI or peers thought the response to COVID-19 was an overreaction. This led folks to question if they were in fact overreacting.
Next, we asked what kinds of activities grad students and postdocs were doing while working from home. The short answer is, many many things! We broke these activities down into four main categories: COVID-19 related, self-care, research-related, and household tasks.
We also asked respondents to rank how frequently they were experiencing (if at all) several symptoms of distress while working from home. This includes some items from the 2016 NCHA II Canada-wide survey. Examples include difficulty focusing on tasks or feeling overwhelmed.
Although not unexpected, our respondents reported high levels of distress while working from home during the pandemic. These reported levels were increased compared to past Canadian data from the NCHA II.
Graduate students and PDFs cited four main barriers they encountered when working at home: technical issues (internet connection, hardware), distractions in the home, loss of motivation, and worsening mental health.
Grad students and PDFs cited five main support they had while working from home: financial support (stipends, government, other sources), social connections, establishing & maintaining routines, mental health support, and supports from supervisors & administrators.
When asked about how they thought the COVID-19 pandemic would impact them going forward, respondents had several concerns and worries. They generally fell into three categories: personal life, impacting current research projects, and impacting their long term career.
There was a lot of worries, too many to cover in one twitter thread, but the two big ones were concerns that there would be fewer employment opportunities post-pandemic, and that folks would be less competitive candidates for future positions because of decreased productivity.
We also asked respondents what kinds of supports they would need when they returned to the lab, which fell into 5 main groups: personal protective equipment and protocols, understanding and empathy, guidance and direction, timeline support, and financial support.
Throughout all three timepoints we looked at (shutdown, working from home, future outlook), we ask folks about the emotions they were feeling at the time. We use the KĂŒbler-Ross model of grief as a lens to frame respondents' reactions to this big change.
KĂŒbler-Ross is one of the best-known models of grief. Although initially used to explain grief from terminal illness, it has also been used to describe grief from large changes in the workplace, like job loss.
There are five stages in the KĂŒbler-Ross model: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It is super important to note that this isnât a linear process. Folks can be in multiple stages at once and can ârepeatâ stages of grief.
Across all time points looked at, the emotions most reported by respondents fell into Bargaining & Depression. Both stages have been connected in past literature with respondents beginning to come to terms with a new reality post-change, in our case research post-pandemic.
But there were a lot of interesting trends in the KĂŒbler-Ross data, both in the composite stage score and when tracking by individual emotion. Iâd suggest looking at the trends for Disbelieving, Angry, Afraid, Anxious, Discouraged, Lonely, Calm, and Contented.
COVID-19 has had a big impact in multiple ways on grad students and PDFs doing lab research in Canada. But there are things we can do moving forward â we have a list of recommendations on how to help folks return to the lab, as well as prepare for if this happens again.
Also, one of the best ways as a researcher to see if what you are observing is ârealâ is to have two independent groups look at it separately and see if they come to similar conclusions. On that note, please check out this great report by @TOSciPolocyNet! https://twitter.com/TOSciPolicyNet/status/1292823839936786436
On that note, a big thank you to the team that helped put this report together!! Thank you for all the hard work you put into this @TheresaSuart @ktgraham11 and @RayTruant
And thanks to folks who helped promote the survey online! Here are a few of them: @MacBiochemGrad @CAN_ACN @MacGSA @mcmastersgs @NUSUtalks @wlugsa @YUGSA84 @QueensSGPS @UofM_GSA @GSACalgary @CAPSACSP @MUN_GSA @SFU_ISTLD @jwoodgett @UNBMacLean
And thanks to folks who helped promote the survey online! Here are a few of them: @Dr_Lori_Burrows @Sloboda_Lab @Steeltown_Worms @structureSara @drkristinhope @karunsinghneuro @CecileFradin @BrianKCoombes @Cheriewoolmer @wlugsapresident @alanna_j_watt @DrBradDoble
And thanks to folks who helped promote the survey online! Here are a few of them: @agmcarthur @gerryiidr @SchertzerLab @RahaSquared @tam_maiuri @Moran_MirabalRG @DJSpeicher @Sydvalentino @michelleogrod @this_is_farah @MoriartyLab @james_paulad @LabScribbles @Millerlab_atMac
