Pre-Nursing Students Provide Insight into Stress and Resilience During COVID-19

Friday, Apr 01, 2022

In a research article recently published by Nurse Educator, Clinical Assistant Professors Regina Urban and Leslie Jennings, and Associate Professor Daisha Cipher set their sights on an understudied group of undergraduates – pre-nursing (or pre-clinical) students. This study was one of the first projects funded by The University of Texas at Arlington College of Nursing and Health Innovation’s (CONHI) Nursing Education Research Initiative (NERI) and was awarded as a pilot grant in the summer of 2020. NERI was established by Dr. Cipher, and with the support of CONHI Dean Elizabeth Merwin, the first funding cycle began in 2020. This initiative offers grant funding and collaborative support to faculty interested in nursing education research. 

Approximately six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Urban and her partners conducted a study of pre-nursing undergraduates, who are students planning to go into the nursing program and taking introductory courses in nursing, but not yet formally accepted into a nursing program. The study consisted of students who had signed up for on-campus courses at UTA, as well as students who anticipated taking their courses online. However, due to COVID-19, those who had anticipated in-person courses were now online learners as well.

Our researchers found that during fall 2020, all pre-nursing students were experiencing significantly higher levels of stress than normal. This was an expected finding at six months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Campus-based pre-nursing students who found themselves in online courses during this time reported more stress and lower levels of resilience than those pre-nursing students who were intentionally taking online courses and planning to apply to the online program. While both groups experienced increased stress during the pandemic, learners who had expected to be on-campus found it harder to cope with unexpectedly receiving their classes virtually compared to their online counterparts.

When asked why they chose to study this particular group of students, Urban said, “The demand for nurses in the US has only increased during the pandemic.  Nursing students play a key role in meeting this need and are helping to stabilize the shifting acute care workforce.  Understanding the well-being of this group of pre-nursing students is important to know how to support our future nursing students.” She added, “Learner well-being is implicated in the larger discussion of clinician well-being. Understanding well-being in the pre-licensure student population is an important subject to explore. Today’s pre-licensure student is tomorrow’s nursing program student and future nursing professional”.

What does this mean for future pre-nursing students? Urban and her partners are hoping their findings will provide valuable insight into the support that universities and nursing programs can provide to care for this particular sect of the student population. The researchers noted that future studies are already being planned and include teaching mindfulness, self-compassion, and coping skills to students that can be used both in and out of the classroom setting. Studies such as these are critical to better understanding the unique needs of pre-nursing students.  

Urban, Jennings, and Cipher’s hope is that this study will help universities continue to see their students as more than just the sum of their academic success. “They are not just numbers,” Urban said. “These are people, and they deserve investing in.” 

For more information about the study, please contact Dr. Urban, College of Nursing and Health Innovation, The University of Texas at Arlington, 411 South Nedderman Dr, Arlington, TX 76019 (rurban@uta.edu).

 

– Written by Amanda Wenzel, Assistant Director, Marketing & Communications