Inclusivity + Belonging

NURSING STUDENT WELLNESS

By Cindy West, DNP, APRN, CRNA

The Big Picture

Promoting a sense of belonging and a culture of health is a formative part of nursing education as students learn to apply these principles and practices to their patients and themselves.

The University of Texas Medical Branch School of Nursing at Galveston tackles nursing student mental health wellness with a program rooted in inclusivity to systematically aid the nursing workforce.

BELONGING

Inclusivity and belonging are terms that have been given significant consideration at higher education institutions over the past several years. These broad concepts, when refined and operationalized, provide the basis for implementing strategies aimed at an overall sense of belonging, a crucial component of student wellness. Promoting a sense of belonging and a culture of health is a formative part of nursing education as students learn to apply these principles and practices to their patients and themselves. According to the Future of Nursing Report 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, the same social and structural determinants of health that shape the physical and social-emotional health and overall wellbeing of patients also impact the health of nursing students. Creating supportive spaces for students to share experiences that affect their sense of belonging in the academic environment are central to creating a culture of health for students (NASEM, 2021).

OPERATIONALIZING BELONGING

The University of Texas Medical Branch School of Nursing at Galveston (UTMB SON) is actively pursuing strategies designed to create awareness, promote mental health wellness and build a culture of health, safety, and belonging that aligns with both the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) call to action for nursing schools to “transition from crisis intervention to prevention by building wellness cultures” and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ (AACN) Healthy Work Environment Essential Standards of Skilled Communication and Authentic Leadership. Several of the AACN Critical Elements in these two standards reference the care, consideration, personal responsibility, and organizational structures that promote belonging and a healthy work environment through skilled communication and authentic leadership. Applying the principles of wellness culture, communication, and leadership to student belonging and mental health wellness yielded a number of strategies for consideration:

• Promote awareness of mental health and readily available support resources.

• Faculty development on student centered support behaviors, mental health first aid, and creating supportive learning environments (Stubin et al., 2023).

• Student training for peer-to-peer facilitated discussions related to mental health wellbeing, factors impacting wellbeing and peer support.

• Engaging community partners as allies in training, development, and execution of mental health and wellness strategies and as advocates for reducing the stigma associated with mental health.

SUPPORT, NOT STIGMA

Evidence shows that, within college populations, there exists a higher prevalence of mental health issues among students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, minority sexual orientations, gender identities, and particularly women (Eisenberg et al., 2013). Psychological distress can have a powerful impact on students’ physical, cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal functioning, but mental health concerns also carry with them significant stigma that often serve as barriers, real or anticipated, to seeking help. For this reason, it is especially important that faculty have the necessary skills to identify early markers of mental health issues to know when and how to appropriately support students.

Creating new opportunities for nursing students to connect through vocalizing unique perspectives on stigmatized mental health issues can help engage students as their authentic selves. Peer support can have a positive impact reducing selfstigma. Establishing a safe space for students experiencing, stress, anxiety, depression, discrimination or trauma not only aids peer-to-peer interactions but offers different perspectives on stigma sensitive topics (Daily Texan , 2023). The perceived impact of new processes that promote inclusivity and academic success will help maintain a culture of health.

Erasing Stigma

Psychological distress can have a powerful impact on students’ physical, cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal functioning, but mental health concerns also carry with them significant stigma that often serve as barriers, real or anticipated, to seeking help.

BUILDING A SAFE HARBOR

Establishing a nursing student mental health wellness program that provides inclusivity, skills, resources, and a sense of belonging for students’ well-being as they pursue a nursing career will systematically aid the nursing workforce shortage by nurturing and maintaining healthy, well-trained nurses. Providing students with the tools to maintain mental health through the stresses, anxieties, and tumultuous work environments many will face will improve the quality of care they provide, reduce workplace burnout, and boost professional nurse job retention in the years to come. i

Dr. Cindy West, DNP, APRN, CRNA is [title] at The University of Texas Medical Branch School of Nursing.

REFERENCES

1. Eisenberg, D., Hunt, J., & Speer, N. (2013). Mental health in American colleges and universities: Variation across student subgroups and across campus. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 201(1), 60-67.

2. National Academy of Science, Engineering & Medicine (2021). The Future of Nursing 2020-2023:

Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. Retrieved from https://nap. nationalacademies.org/catalog/25982/the-future-of-nursing-2020-2030-chartinga-path-to

3. Stubin, Catherine A. PhD, RN, CNE, CCRN-K; Ruth-Sahd, Lisa DEd, RN, CCRN, CEN, CNE, CCFP

ANEF; Dahan, Thomas A. PhD. Promoting Nursing Student Mental Health Wellness: The Impact of Resilience-Building and Faculty Support. Nurse Educator ():10.1097/ NNE.0000000000001535, October 05, 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/NNE.0000000000001535

4. The Daily Texan. (2023, February 20). Wellness Labs provides a safe space for student dialogue about mental health. Retrieved from Wellness Labs provides a safe space for student dialogue about mental health – The Daily Texan

5. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (2024). Diversity. Retrieved from https://www.utmb.edu/caps/caps-diversity