Why our future nurses' mental health should be a priority

Pre-registration nursing programmes are among the most challenging, so we need to ensure students take care and control of their mental health and well-being

Pre-registration nursing education is recognised to be one of the most challenging programmes due to its demanding curriculum which integrates extensive academic and clinical learning.

Balancing rigorous academic demands with life outside university often with the addition of part-time employment and caregiving responsibilities can be arduous.

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‘Protecting well-being and building resilience in the formative years is a necessity to prepare better for the responsibilities and realities of clinical practice’

Mental health nursing students can be exposed to traumatic cases which can be distressing and triggering especially for those with mental health needs of their own. This high level of emotional labour can lead to compassion fatigue or vicarious trauma affecting personal health, educational success and professional development, as well as being factors in attrition. It is unsurprising that many students feel relieved and exhausted on graduation.

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Given that nurses are working in more challenging situations than ever and increasing numbers are leaving the profession, protecting well-being and building resilience in the formative years is a necessity to prepare better for the responsibilities and realities of clinical practice.

Good mental well-being should be integral to pre-registration nursing education

Addressing these challenges requires concerted effort by approved education institutes (AEIs) to embed mental well-being in nursing curricula along with practice partners.

There should be more emphasis in the Nursing and Midwifery Council code on good mental well-being and it should become an integral part of pre-registration nursing education. Foundational knowledge and skills in the formative years should be an ethical responsibility for AEIs and their practice partners.

While AEIs strive to support nursing students’ mental health needs through a range of services, these efforts are often reactionary, curative in nature and lacking well-coordinated and integrative proactive mental well-being strategies.

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What is required is a comprehensive well-being framework involving a coordinated set of proactive preventive and impactful interventions strategically integrated into the nursing programmes and aimed at maintaining and promoting students' mental well-being throughout their academic journey. This includes empowering students to take charge of their health and well-being.

Pras Ramluggun, associate professor of mental health, Northumbria University