National Self Care Week is a UK-wide annual awareness week that focuses on embedding support for self care across communities, families and generations. The theme this year is “Mind and Body”.
University Teacher Rachael Duckworth has been hosting ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ afternoons for our student nurses for the last twelve months, with the aim of promoting mental and physical wellbeing, and helping students develop resilience.
These sessions stem from a piece of research Rachael conducted last year, which involved sending a survey to all of our current undergraduate nursing students (170 people). The study aimed to:
- understand what resilience meant to student nurses
- what stresses were impacting undergraduate nursing students over our three year programme (and how this affected their wellbeing)
- and consider the strategies and tools which could help students develop resilience.
Rachael explained: “The survey highlighted the current stresses facing nursing students, including conflicting pressures of academic work and clinical placements, stress and the negative impact on their mental health, the current pressure in the NHS, and a need for more support.”
The wellbeing programme aims to tackle the stresses student nurses face, and offer vital wellbeing support. Since the initiative began, nursing students have taken part in a range of activities, including yoga, breathing exercises, crafting for mindfulness, positive affirmations, mindful study techniques, and talks on managing stress.
Whilst most of these sessions are optional, some have been timetabled at key points in our programme - such as before going out on, or in the middle of, placements - to provide support at potentially stressful times. The feedback has been very positive so far, with students saying they feel calmer and have learnt actionable skills.
Rachael Duckworth
University Teacher, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery
Some of the feedback from students has been shared below:
"I feel so much calmer already"
"The support I received was great and I am now able to recognise distractions when it comes to studying and not be hard on myself when I do need a break."
"It also helped talking to others today and not feeling on my own."
"The tips on reading also helped! I will be trying them out on the next article I read."
"The information leaflets and the relaxation techniques you provided enabled me to prepare myself for the presentation and gave me some actionable skills to take forward both with my studies and into the workplace."