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

Vision and Action

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