Caring for self while learning to care for others: a challenge for nursing students.
While learning to care for others, undergraduate nursing students often fail to care for themselves. This study examined the effect of a self-care intervention on undergraduate nursing students. Self-care is the practice of health-related activities in which individuals engage to adopt a healthier lifestyle. A pretest-posttest, single group design was used to test whether students increased their self-care activities after completing a course requiring self-care. Full-time junior nursing students (N = 67) were required to complete a lifestyle self-care plan and use 2 hours of practice time per week to engage in self-care behaviors. A measure of components of a healthy lifestyle, the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II, showed an increase on six of the seven scales. These findings suggest that nursing students may increase self-care when given time to develop self-care strategies as part of a nursing course.
Stark
Mary Ann
MA
Bronson School of Nursing, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008, USA. mary.stark@wmich.edu
Manning-Walsh
Juanita
J
Vliem
Sally
S
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003479:Curriculum; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D017145:Models, Educational; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014956:Writing