Wellbeing and Resilience

In this self directed study section you will engage with a number of resources that are essential in understanding your own wellbeing. You will find some resources to help you recognise the importance of your own wellbeing and recognise how your own resilience can assist you to consider strategies to use in placement areas.

By the end of this self directed study section you will:

Consider your own well being and what impacts it
Understand what anxiety and altered mental health is and identify the signs and symptoms
Explore what resilience is and what contributes to your ability to navigate new challenges
Increased awareness of possible coping strategies to help your resilience

Each section below will consider one of the above learning outcomes, please explore each section and complete the tasks.

What you need to do:

We have collated a range of key resources to help you manage your well being and mental health:

Please look Section 1 and complete the activities as they are presented in the Screencast
Review the resources in Section 2 on Well being and Mental Health
Review the resource in Section 3 on resilience and coping strategies

Consider how others may respond to stress and the theory of workplace incivility; including strategies for managing challenging situations

Explore the mindfulness and relaxation resources
Familiarise yourself with the additional links and resources provided

Section 1: Looking after yourself

As a student nurse you will find yourself in challenging situations that will lead to varying degrees of anxiety and stress at placement and at home.

The Nursing Standard has developed a collection of free news and evidence-based resources relevant to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic available via - https://rcni.com/nursing-standard/covid-19

Activity One:

This is a Screencast of the Wellness Recovery and Action Plan and related activities on looking after yourself. You will need a pen/paper or word doc open in order to document your thoughts/responses as you move through the Screencast

Link to WRAP Screencast

Section 2: Well being and mental health

Anxiety and Stress

As a student nurse you will find yourself in challenging situations that will lead to varying degrees of anxiety and stress at placement and at home. A certain level of stress and anxiety is normal and healthy. Please consider the self help guide below that explores the foundation of stress and anxiety in any situation. Secondly you will look a little closer at specific threats to your well-being related to Covid 19.

Activity Two: Click on the picture to the right to access the guide

Read the guide to anxiety and stress on the right then answer the following questions:

Write a definition of anxiety that is meaningful to you.
What signs and symptoms do you identify with that suggests you are stressed or anxious.
What kind of situations normally makes you stressed and do you think they are similar to ones you will may face because of the pandemic?

Activity Three:

On the left is an excellent resource that has been made available from Holly Blake & Fiona Bermingham. It considers the impact of the virus on health care workers. Take your time to read through the information and look at the links suggested.

Make or save a list of the links that you think you will will find most useful to revisit if needed in the future.
Revisit your answers from above and alter them if you have learnt something new about yourself.

Section 3: Resilience and Coping strategies

This section will help you to both recognise how your resilience maybe impacted and it will help you to consider strategies to use in placement and at home. Taking steps to look after your well being can help you deal with pressure, and reduce the impact that stress has on your life. This is sometimes called developing emotional resilience. Resilience is not just your ability to bounce back, but also your capacity to adapt in the face of challenging circumstances, whilst maintaining a stable mental well being. Resilience is not a personality trait. It's something that you can develop with practice.

To manage stress and safeguard your mental health you can:

• identify your triggers and reduce them

• organise your time

• address some of the causes

• accept the things you can't change

To find out more about each of these see this useful guide from Mind

Activity Four: Click on the picture to the left to access

The second part of the stress guide considers coping strategies. It will get you to think about how to start :

Understanding the management of anxiety better
Reducing Physical symptoms
Altering thoughts related to anxiety
Changing anxiety behaviours

This will help you with the next activity.

Activity Five:

Have a look at the self care tree below. There are useful headings to consider the different aspects that you can use to develop your resilience.
Consider each section and think about whether you feel you are able to carry out and later you may wish to revisit it and look at what tips or ways of working you have picked up on Placement that helped and complete a Reflection for the areas you wish to work on and how you will achieve this.

Clinical resilience skills

Compassionate Communication

The guide on the right is a practical reminder of some simple steps that can be followed when talking to relatives in situations where stress and anxiety maybe affecting anyone involved.

Talking to Relatives - NHS Covid-19 Communications 020420.pdf

Resilience Based Supervision

Healthcare organisations are increasingly recognising their responsibility to support the wellbeing of healthcare staff as a result of the accumulative demands of their role. Resilience-based clinical supervision is a newly developed intervention that encourages practitioners to pay attention and apply reasoning to behaviours and responses to emotive scenarios through a process of stress alleviation and prevention. With thanks to the authors and Nottingham University for making this available.

Relaxation & Mindfulness Exercises

Below you will find a number of links that you can use at times when you may need to look after your well being. Have a quick look at the and save any links to ones you think you'd like to use.

Video for relaxation - Guided Relaxation

Meditation/Mindfulness App - OAK App

“Weightless” by Marconi Union - Video to help reduce anxiety

A 30 minute meditation - Jeff Foster video

30 seconds to mindfulness - TED talk video

Mindfulness sessions and Podcasts - Oxford Centre

Additional resources to support your well being

NHS Website - Stress and Anxiety

RETHINK: Managing your own mental health during the Coronavirus

Mental Health Foundation: How to look after your mental health

Mental Health Foundation: How to look after your mental health using exercise

Sheffield Hallam University: Connecting with others

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