The purpose of this research is to understand how nursing students perform self-care throughout the 5 semesters of a rigorous nursing pre-licensure program. The field of nursing, often emotionally and physically challenging, encompasses a broad spectrum of patient circumstances. Self-care consists of constant, purposeful, voluntary, and learned actions performed in order to maintain one’s well being and overall healthy existence (Orem, Taylor, & Renpenning, 2001). Self-care is a life sustaining action, tailored to each individual separately. Nursing students face the clinical world of constantly putting others’ needs before their own, along with the stress of academia. Before caring for anyone else, a caretaker needs be mindful of his or her own individual needs, for example: how much water to drink throughout the day, how much sleep to get, how many calories to eat related to energy expenditure, how much time of physical activity needed, etc. A prevalent problem nursing majors face is incorporating self-care maintenance activities into their already demanding daily schedules Finding a balance is often extremely difficult for these students. In a preliminary review of the literature, studies show that nurses lack self-care practices. Nurses impact patient outcomes and quality of care but there is evidence that the lack of nurses' self-care has a negative impact in the workplace and for patient outcomes.
This research exposes unique evidence through a mixed-methods study of both a survey (n=160) and semi-structured, self-report interviews (n=9). This mixed-methods style of research includes both numberical or quanitative data and the voice of the research participants or qualitative data. Inclusion criteria included participants were age 19 years or older, able to read and understand English, and admitted to The University of Alabama in Huntsville declaring nursing as a major if lower division or accepted in the College of Nursing. This research revealed crucial themes in regards to the lack of self-care that were analyzed to better understand self-care during this rigorous program. Nursing students and healthcare workers need more knowledge and support about self-care to create a balanced work and home environment and to prevent workplace fatigue.
Reference
Orem, D. E., Taylor, S. G., & Renpenning, K. M. (2001). Nursing concepts of practice (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
