by Wesley Oliver, Pharm.D., PGY-1
Pharmacy Practice Resident, University of Maryland Medical Center
Anxiety,
particularly related to public speaking, has been an issue I have had to deal
with my entire life. When I was younger,
I would do anything to avoid speaking in public. If speaking in front of others was
unavoidable, I would reluctantly meander to the front of the group — sweating,
shaking, and heart racing — mumble and stammer through my presentation, then sit
down as quickly as possible. Public
speaking has never been easy for me; however, I have developed strategies to
deal with my anxiety and I continue working on my public speaking skills. Stress and anxiety are not detrimental if they
are appropriately managed and I foresee the anxiety subsiding with repeated practice
and become more comfortable presenting in a variety of settings.
When I
explain my anxiety to others, they always give the same response: “Everyone
gets nervous when speaking in front of others.”
While I have accepted this to be true based on my research on the
subject, I have wondered if stress and anxiety can affect faculty in other
areas of their work.
To my amazement,
a quick search on the Internet reveals numerous areas where faculty experience
anxiety and how it can affect them both professionally and personally. Common themes include: maintaining heavy
workloads, trying to meet unrealistic demands from administration, conducting research,
applying for grants, making time for students, and creating work-life balance.1-3 It is easy to imagine how someone
experiencing excessive anxiety and stress in one area of their work life (e.g.
applying for grants) can negatively affect and influence other areas (e.g.
teaching).
Grade
anxiety is closely related to exam anxiety.
Exam anxiety consists of faculty members experiencing stress because of
the test they have created. They are
unsure of how the students will perform and whether or not they have created a
“fair” test. Anxiety also arises in
faculty members questioning whether they have taught the information effectively
or whether the information they taught is being tested appropriately.5
Finally, many
faculty experience stress and anxiety at the beginning of their course every
year. Imagine having a new group of
students, each with different personalities and expectations, and having to
create new ways to reach them each year.
This can be very stressful. One
faculty member expressed the thoughts racing through his mind on the first of
class this way: “Have them like me, Have them think I like them, Have them
think I am funny, Have them think I know what I am doing so they will learn, Have
them fear me because I know what will be on the exams and they do not, Not
bother myself about what they think at all and just lecture.”6
There are
many theories as to how stress and anxiety can affect performance. The oldest theory, known as the Yerkes-Dodson
or inverted-U principle, claims that a certain amount of arousal, such as
stress or anxiety, is needed for a person to reach maximal performance. However, once a person is exposed to too much
stress or anxiety, performance will start to decline until the person can no
longer function.7 Those that
experience a little anxiety can perform very well, while those who experience
too much are unable to perform at all.
Thus, it is important for someone to manage his/her anxiety in order to
perform at a high level.
There are
two methods to combat stress and anxiety as a teacher. First, is to prepare for stressful situations
and address them before beginning teaching.
The other is to identify those affected by stress and anxiety and
institute programs to help them. Both
can be instituted simultaneously. Faculty
should go through training to teach them to effectively assign grades,
administer exams, prepare for classes, and manage the demands of faculty life. While this instruction will help diminish the
stress and anxiety, programs will still be needed for those that need more
help. Given the risk of isolation for
faculty members experiencing stress and anxiety, proactive methods to identify
those that might need more help should be implemented. These individuals can then be referred to
receive cognitive behavioral therapy to help them deal with excessive stress
and anxiety.7 A recent blog
series focused on mental health issues in academia. The author states that it is easy for those
in academia to feel isolated. Most do
not feel comfortable approaching colleagues about their feelings.8,9 Thus, it is very important to recognize
stress in colleagues and strive to create an appropriate work-life balance to
keep from becoming too stressed.
Stress
and anxiety not only affects students but also those that teach them. The best way to address faculty stress and
anxiety is to implement programs to assist in preparing for and deal with these
emotions.
References:
- Kraus MW. Do Professors Live a Stress-Free Life? [Internet]. Psychology Today; July 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 30].
- Shaw C. Overworked and isolated-work pressure fuels mental illness in academia [Internet]. United Kingdom: The Guardian; May 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 30].
- Smith D. Dealing with anxiety as a professor [Internet]. University Affairs; May 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 30].
- Grade anxiety for professors [Internet]. Science Professor: The questionable life of a science professor; October 2010 [cited 2014 Sep 30].
- Gabriel ME. Exam jitters? Professors battle test anxiety, too [Internet]. Madison (WI): University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Letters and Science News; December 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 30].
- Kakela P. Start-up Anxiety: Professor shares his fears as a new semester begins [Internet]. Faculty Focus; December 2013 [cited 2014 Sep 30].
- Staal MA. Stress, Cognition, and Human Performance: A literature review and conceptual framework [Internet]. Hanover, MD: NASA Center for Aerospace Information; August 2004 [cited 2014 Oct 11].
- Blog + Mental health: a university crisis [Internet]. United Kingdom: The Guardian; July 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 30].
- Shaw C, Ward L. Dark thoughts: why mental illness is on the rise in academia [Internet]. United Kingdom: The Guardian; March 2014 [cited 2014 Sep 30].
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