Self-care integration into a prelicense nursing curriculum

• Published in: Teaching and learning in nursing Vol. 19; no. 3; pp. 236 - 240
• Main Authors: Llewellyn, Sarah, Chapman, Tracee, Connor, Kelley
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01-07-2024
• Subjects: Curriculum; Nursing education; Professional identity; Self-care; Nursing education; Curriculum; Self-care; Professional identity
• ISSN: 1557-3087; 1557-2013
• DOI: 10.1016/j.teln.2024.03.001

•What is currently known about this topic? Self-care is an important part of professional nursing identity that can contribute to the longevity of a career.•What the paper adds to the existing knowledge? This paper discusses the integration of various self-care interventions into the first semester of a nursing program and identifies some of the continued barriers students face in performing self-care activities.•How the information in your manuscript can be applied to practice? The self-care interventions explained in this project could be used or modified by nurse educators to purposefully integrate self-care into the curriculum.
Both nursing students and nurses face stressors. Part of a strong nursing professional identity includes the ability to perform self-care activities. However, self-care has not been a formalized component of nursing education.
This mixed-methods scholarship of teaching and learning project used a pre-post design with survey and narrative responses to determine relationships between purposeful integration of self-care spaces and mini lessons and students’ perceived self-care barriers, motivators, and participation.
Results indicated positive changes on many aspects of the survey, particularly in stress control, relaxation, and work-life balance; however, there was a decline in reported sleep. The most popular mini lessons were exercise, sleep hygiene, meditation, and meal preparation. Time emerged as a major barrier to participation in self-care activities, along with low motivation and self-imposed expectations.
Incorporating a variety of self-care opportunities into the first semester of a nursing program may be a beneficial way to support students. Self-care activities could also be scaffolded throughout the program to reinforce learning and contribute to professional identity formation.