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,  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 3 rd year students  1:1 appointments  Skype appointments  Available on main campus and SDP  2013/ 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” (1 st year student nurse) “Really useful in developing my essay writing skills” (1 st year student nurse) “I am really happy with the service that ASP provide, I personally find that 1:1 tuition really helpful” (3 rd 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