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Student studies on hold
Stony Brook University students above and below at work in Professor Nancy Hollingsworth’s lab before the pandemic. Photos courtesy of Stony Brook University.
College dreams
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ON HOLD
BY ABIGAIL CARMONA
Dr. Peter Gergen, a professor of biochemistry at Stony Brook University, spoke recently of the struggles that students conducting independent research faced during the coronavirus pandemic. They needed field work to complete their studies — and their degrees — but were unable to carry it out because of long months spent quarantining. “There were students who were registered for research in the spring …. They needed to do something, so they all did it remotely,” Gergen said. Every summer for the past 25 years, the university has provided funding for students to conduct independent research, and in the biology department, more than 40 students received funding to carry out their projects during the pandemic. “The biology program has been adding money into that pot to support more students to do research,” Gergen said. Students had to receive letters from faculty members, stating they were willing to sponsor the students virtually. Underclassmen were not allowed to conduct research in the second half of the spring semester or in the summer, because upperclassmen, who were soon to graduate, were the priority. However, in the fall 2021 semester, underclassmen will again will be allowed to conduct in-person research, if they fit into university-approved faculty members’ research plans. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the university saw a decline in research participation last fall and this spring, particularly
Dr. Lisa Sparacino instructing New York Institute of Technology nursing students before the pandemic. Photos courtesy of NYIT.
in the laboratory sciences. “When you have small spaces,” Gergen said. “it’s not possible. If you have a couple of Ph.D. students and a post-doc, you need to socially space them. Put another undergraduate in the room, it hurts your research productivity.” With virtual learning, many faculties have figured out how students can conduct research projects remotely, Gergen said, noting, “computational biology is really easy to do remotely.” The New York Institute of Technology, in Old Westbury, has struggled with remote learning, as well. “When Covid-19 first hit, nurses were being taken out of the facilities, and no one really knew what was going on,” said Dr. Lisa Sparacino, chairman of and associate professor in NYIT’s nursing department. “Starting off this spring semester, units that were closed are now beginning to open up; all of our students this semester are having time in the clinical,” she said.
There are restrictions, though. “Units themselves cannot handle as many students as they used to because of Covid-19,” Sparacino said. “We used to have eight students in a group, and now some of the units are four, five or six. We are having to rotate the students. They are attending the actual hospital clinical site anywhere between 60 and 80 percent of the normal rotation, and the rest is virtual.”
Questions and concerns have been raised about students taking part in virtual clinicals, since students are not receiving the hands-on practice that they would at an in-person clinical. “They are getting the knowledge on what they should be doing,” Sparacino said, however. “They are in the clinical site and are getting that interaction that’s vital.
“We also are holding labs on campus for our fundamentals, physical assessments and other skills,” she continued. “They are in smaller groups that are usually about 10 to an instructor in a lab, where they are interacting and are given injections to fake skin pads. The state has given us a dispensation for alternatives as well as virtual stimulation.
“With limitation of in-person attendance at clinicals, many healthcare facilities are aware that newly graduated nurses will not have hands-on experience,” Sparacino concluded. “As a result, hospital officials are beginning to plan for extended orientation time for new graduates and will be working with the nurses one on one.”
New York Institute of Technology nursing student in the classroom.
