Balancing graduate studies with full-time work and family obligations

Medical Nursing

Graduate Study Challenges and Strategies for Success

This paper explores three primary challenges a potential graduate student will face on entering a study program while working full-time and attending to family obligations. These include balancing one's life, learning how to socialize in a new setting and overcoming emotional barriers to success in the academic environment. The paper presents three strategies most likely to enable student achievement, including socialization, collaboration and adoption of self-development and self-efficient tools for managing one's daily tasks.

Graduate Study Challenges and Strategies for Success

This paper describes three challenges a new graduate student faces when tasked with part-time family obligations, the obligation to work full-time and the desire to return to school 30-years post graduation. Accompanying this, the paper will offer three strategies one can use to address these challenges.

Three Strategies for Success

To overcome the challenges associated with graduate education given the variables stated above, a student may adopt three strategies: (1) collaboration with the department and University to accommodate the unique needs of the student (Anderson, 1996); (2) socialization for the student to the academic environment and with peers that might experience similar difficulties while pursuing their careers and educational objectives (Austin, 2002); and (3) psychological teaching to include adaptation of self-efficacy mechanisms, so a student is better able to become more self-efficient given their constrictions or limitations within a work, educational or parenting environment (Bandura, 1982).

Bieber & Worley (2006) note that when students pay closer attention to their surroundings, and when teachers engage students in a more collaborative manner, students are more likely to set daily schedules that conform with their abilities and adapt to any limitations they may experience while juggling multiple responsibilities.

Anderson (1996) suggests that many Universities need to work with student's to accommodate their unique needs, as long as students are willing to engage in collaborative relationships with their peers (Austin, 2002) and families. One way to teach graduate students how to balance their education, career and any psychological or emotional blocks they may have to success is by teaching students to adopt self-efficient tools, such as creating daily task lists that limit the amount of time they spend on activities to ensure they fulfill all of their obligations (Bandura, 1982). Universities also have an obligation to effectively screen students (Brink, 1999) to ensure that students are well-informed of how much work they will need to take on as a student, and what resources may be available to them to overcome any foreseeable obstacles they might face in the near future.

Conclusion

Graduate students who have family obligations, work obligations and who desire to return to school after an extended absence face multiple challenges, including those associated with learning how to socialize with their peers, establish collaborative relationships and complete their studies without burning out and without suffering from ill emotional effects. Fortunately there are many strategies students can employ to achieve this, including those just mentioned; collaborating with peers and educators, learning to re-socialize with new peer groups and adopting tools like time management tools that will help students better accomplish their daily tasks. While an individual with full-time work responsibilities and part-time family obligations will face many challenges, there is ample evidence they can succeed when supplied with the tools highlighted in this research report.