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Purpose: To evaluate the effect of the Self-Care Education for Nursing Students (SCENS) program on self-care and coping among junior nursing students.
Background and Significance: Nursing is the most trusted profession in the United States (The American Nurses Association, 2015). However, the journey toward obtaining an undergraduate nursing degree can be quite challenging. Undergraduate nursing students are among some of the most driven students, but along with this drive to achieve comes a great deal of stress, anxiety and often times these students develop to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as alcohol use, disordered eating and sleep disturbances (Carvalho Bos, et. al, 2013; Barry & Piazza-Gardner, 2015; Gaultney, 2010; Hershner & Chervin, 2014; Schaumberg, Anderson, Reilly & Anderson, 2014). Nursing students often lack healthy self-care and effective coping strategies while learning to care for others. Lack of appropriate self-care practices can lead to deviations in health status which can have detrimental effects on the physical and mental well-being of nursing students as well as their academic performance (Carvalho Bos, et. al, 2013; Hershner & Chervin, 2014; National Eating Disorders Association, 2015). It is necessary to identify effective intervention programs that will improve self-care practices and coping leading to increased overall general health and well-being in this population. Despite the plethora of studies examining disordered eating, sleep disturbances and alcohol use in the college population, there is a dearth of studies that have examined these factors related to self-care and coping or effective interventions aimed at increasing self-care and coping among nursing students.
Methods: Participants of the study will be the class of junior students beginning the Traditional Nursing Program at The College at Brockport in Fall 2015 (n=70). The Self-Care Education for Nursing Students Program (SCENS) is a mandatory part of the nursing program and consists of three meetings with a graduate counseling student. These meetings are planned for the first week of classes, week eight of classes, and the last week of classes. A group format, consisting of groups of 25 nursing students, is planned for the meetings. Three separate meeting time slots will be needed to facilitate the total number of junior nursing students in the Fall 2015 semester. Student use of alcohol will be measured using the AUDIT-Enhanced, a 14-question survey, using a Likert-scale answer format, which asks about alcohol consumption. Exercise of Self-Care Agency Scale (ESCAS) will be used to measure self-care agency. The Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) will be used to measure coping self-efficacy. Disordered eating will be measured using questions 1-5 and 15 – 18 from the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Screen (EDDS). The Sleep Difficulty Index will be used to measure sleep difficulties. Data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests utilizing SPSS version 22.0.