Supporting the Transition & Emotional Resilience of
Nursing Students
Creating a Pathway to Success
Lynne Walsh Senior Lecturer & Senior Fellow (HEA)
Elizabeth Stratton Academic Success Programme Manager
Well-Being
A positive state of mind and body, feeling safe and able to cope with a sense of connection with people, communities and the wider environment.
(H M Government 2010)
Why is student support so important?
Personal support through crisis
Personal goals and achievement
Academic success
Preventing attrition
Maintaining the future professional
workforce
Costs to train nurses
When is it important to support students
Transition is essential and a time when students often require extra support.
Definition of transition….
“the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another”
“students in transition from one programme to another”
Oxford Dictionaries (2015)
Supporting Transition (Change)
On commencement of the Undergraduate nursing course
Transition from year 1 to year 2
Transition from year 2 to year 3
Transition from student to qualified nurse
Transition into their first job as a qualified professional
ALSO extra support is required during the degree
During crisis
During academic failure
During placement difficulties
Transition Students access the
programme from very different backgrounds and have very different needs:
Straight from A levels in school.
From Access courses in college.
From other professions/ jobs
From parenthood when children have grown up
They have various experiences and coping strategies.
Resilience
Lane’s 4 Personal Resilience framework shows that personal resilience is influenced by a broad range of factors including Health & Wellbeing, as well as the environment.
The individual characteristics of personal resilience can be grouped into:
Success
Strategies
Performance Mind set
And Resilient Character
Resilience is important when undertaking academic study.
Resilience
The human capacity to face, overcome and ultimately be strengthened by life’s adversities and challenges. ’ Coutu, D. (2002, May).
Coutu, D. (2002, May) How resilience works. Harvard Business Review, 46-55.
This is not something that people either have or do not have.
Resilience is learnable and teachable and as we learn we increase the range of strategies available to us when things get difficult.
Building resilience is about all individuals not just those who are considered vulnerable, and is therefore something that the whole University needs to consider when supporting students.
Resilience In the context of developing
resilience, it is important to engage with challenging situations, such as balancing work and personal life.
Confidence is also an important factor for resilience. Examples include preparation, experience, self-awareness, and friendship support.
Resilience
The ability to focus is also an important aspect of resilience.
Specifically being able to focus on themselves, not be distracted by others and to focus on the process rather than the outcomes of events.
Quality social support is important including support from lecturers, peers and family.
Resilience An integral aspect of resilience is the ability
to utilise a ‘specific mix’ of aspects to cope with the pressures encountered.
Organisations should seek to develop psychological factors:
Positive personality
Motivation
Confidence
Focus
Perceived social support
Students need to consider building their own personal resilience.
Resilience has a critical role to play in achieving success.
Resilience View setbacks as an
opportunity for mastery and growth.
Be proactive in personal development where skills can be updated.
Be sensitive to different types of motivation (e.g., internal and external) and consider the decisions you make as active choices rather than sacrifices.
Resilience Build confidence from multiple sources
(e.g., performance accomplishments, experience, and colleagues) rather than focusing on one particular source.
Focus on what is in your control such as on processes, the present, positives, and staying composed.
Take specific steps to obtain support .Possible options may include seeking mentorship.
Study
Williamson et al (2013) study considered nursing students and staffs views on retention and attrition.
4 themes from the study:
Academic support
Placements and mentors
Stresses and reality of nursing life
Dreams for a better programme( i.e smaller group learning.
Study findings
Friendship groups helped support resilience and are instrumental when retaining students.
Higher Education Institutions should work to facilitate this.
Vocation . i.e. working to foster belongingness is also important.
Support
Improved pastoral support and wider supporting activities help students to stay (Urwin et al 2010) and
Belonging was also seen as a crucial concept as to why students stayed in University (Thomas 2012).
Support Many nursing students have other
important commitments and roles affecting their studies:
They are parents
They have other dependents
Financial commitments, mortgages, childcare
The undergraduate nursing degree is full time with clinical full time placements
This course has professional hours that have to be achieved as well as academic hours full time when in University.
Clinical Supervision I am supporting students through their
final transition from student nurse in University to registered professional nurse into their first job.
This is achieved through preparing senior staff in the Health Boards to undertake clinical supervision in clinical practice.
3 day workshop training staff to become supervisors for newly qualified nurses in clinical areas.
All newly qualified staff in the Health Boards will be offered clinical supervision as a means of support on qualifying as a nurse.
Overall support provided
Personal tutors provide pastoral care and academic support .
Personal tutors undertake reflection on practice placement during each module
Provision of academic support for essays and academic work and presentations.
Mentorship in practice. Practice educators in practice Link lecturers in practice Clinical supervision
Student Support from the Wider University
Centre for Academic Success
Academic Study Skills Support For all students All levels Managing transition into university and from
level to level Specialist tuition
Student Services
Liaison with other services such as
Well-being Service
Drop-in classes
Workshops
College specific provision
Individual appointments
Online Provision - PASS
ASP Support for Nursing Students
Induction session: Learning in HE
Introduction to ASP
Introduction to studying at a HE level
Workshop on paraphrasing and citations – in collaboration with library staff
Writing workshops – specific essays
Dissertation workshops for 3rd year students
1:1 appointments
Skype appointments
Available on main campus and SDP
2013/14 - 350 nursing students
Benefits of ASP
Support from another source
Not just when failure occurs
To achieve academic potential
Acquire other life skills to improve employability prospects
Help with the transition into HE
Also transition between each level and beyond – equip students with transferable skills
Building confidence
Strengthening resilience
Feedback
“Boosted my confidence in my ability to write an academic assignment” (1st year student nurse)
“Really useful in developing my essay writing skills” (1st year student nurse)
“I am really happy with the service that ASP provide, I personally find that 1:1 tuition really helpful” (3rd year student nurse)
“Thank you for all your help. I couldn’t have done it without you!” (Graduate student nurse)
Looking forward
Epigeum – Online Study Skills
Focus on transition and first year
Reach more students
Increased collaboration with CHHS
Bespoke workshops
Increased collaboration with Employability
Questions