Changing the Stigma of College Nursing Major’s Mental Health

    Deciding on a college major is a very nerve-racking process, especially if you are wanting to go into medicine. For the majority of students, deciding on a specific major means putting aside your hobbies, free time, and spending time with friends. This can be very detrimental to your mental and physical health, especially for nursing majors. Being in nursing school requires complete focus and energy between taking classes and working at the clinical site. The NIH states, “The psychological indicators increased significantly in nursing students during their education. Interventions to reduce stress, anxiety, and psychological distress are needed to improve the mental health status of nursing students” (Sonmez, Yonca, et al). This leads to over half of the desired nursing students dropping out and the other half of students that make it to the next level are mentally exhausted. According to Nursing Education, “According to Chapter 4 of the Health and Academic Achievement Book, 55% of nursing students suffer from burnout, depression, and high alcohol consumption” (McCoy). This is why I believe there needs to be an intervention now, while in nursing school, before they continue their career path. I want to make the University of South Carolina Lancaster’s campus to be the first USC bridged school to mentally take care of their nursing students. My goal is to make a campus organization to collaborate with the Student Nursing Association for the wellness and mental health of our Bachelor of Science in Nursing students to break the negative stigma of mental health before their nursing career begins.

    Being a nursing major here at USC Lancaster, I know the struggles my fellow peers have been through and are currently struggling with. My graduation with leadership distinction pathway is professional and civic pathway, which also relates to my student worker position on campus. Through my Switchboard position in the Dean’s Office, I have learned different skills that have inspired me to make a difference, like positivity and productivity. During PSYC: Introduction to Psychology, I learned the concept of positive thinking. This should be an easy task, but for some individuals it is harder said than done. Positive thinking happens when you engage in habits that allow you to become more adaptable, leverage your strengths, face obstacles with optimism, and maintain a strong sense of self (LINK KI #1). This is why I believe positivity has a strong correlation with productivity. When having a positive mindset and a heathy environment, anything is possible. On the contrary, nursing students seem to have a stressful and high energy environment which hinders their mental health tremendously. Also, an important task of a nurse is to be prepared for anything and everything. This requires quick thinking for the unpredictable. This is the opposite of creating stability through routines when it is hard to plan for the uncertainty. As a child you seek that stability through your caregiver, then as an employee you reach that level of stability through routines. But as a nurse, you can only prepare so much because of the unpredictable factors in your career. This is why I believe nursing major students need a sense of stability in themselves before they reach a career level.

    Nursing school is physically and mentally challenging. During your first two years at the University of South Carolina Lancaster (USCL), you are required to maintain a certain Grade Point Average (GPA) while finishing your courses with no grade below a ‘C’. This is extremely hard to do with only four exams during the course, which is why over 60% of students drop out of the Anatomy and Physiology course within the first semester. Then, in your third and fourth year, you are juggling clinical time while enrolling in classes. This is not only difficult for your body but also for your mental health. This is why I believe nursing students receive a bad stigma. This stigma being that because nurses are giving so much of themselves to help their patients, they are avoiding their own mental health struggles. This starts while in school because nursing students are learning the unique and difficult characteristics it is to be a nurse. When telling someone you are a nursing major, they respond with “good luck” while in school and “good luck” once you become a nurse. It seems like those comments are bringing you down, rather than building you up. This is why I want to start bringing awareness to nursing students’ mental health before they begin their lifelong career.

    At USC Lancaster we offer counseling services, but not for specific groups. We also offer a Student Nursing Association (SNA) club, but not to discuss the well-being of the students. So, during the Fall semester of 2025 I will start an organization for the nursing major students of USC Lancaster to collaborate with the SNA club. My first step in starting a campus organization is to contact the campus’ stakeholders. These individuals being the Director of Student Life, the Nursing Director, our campus’ counselor, and the president of SNA. Then I would make a plan of what I want to accomplish and what would be my goals for this collaboration organization. These goals being: bringing the nursing students together to form a tight knit community because no one needs to struggle alone, and to bring down the stress levels of these students.

Marketing @ USCL

    Once I get permission to open a campus organization to work will the SNA club, I will begin to get the word out. I will send out an email to the students and staff members of the SNA club as well as make an informative poster. On the email I will state that we will meet every Tuesday of the month from 12:15pm-1:00pm in Hubbard Hall room 212. For the informative poster, I will add the same date, time, and a little bit of information about the importance of mental health, then send it to our Advancement Coordinator to post on the USCL website and to send to the students of USCL. This will spread the word not only to the members of SNA, but also to the student body.

Weekly Meetings

    During the beginning of the meeting, I will encourage everyone to make a little plate of snacks I will provide from Aldi. The reason I chose Aldi is because it’s organic and on the cheaper side for the same quality. I will spend the money I get from forming the organization at USCL to pay for the small supplies and snacks I will need for each meeting. Small snack foods being little water bottles and small juice drinks, fruit and crackers because everyone enjoys a small treat every now and then. While people are making their plates, I will spend the first 15 minutes letting everyone digress and discuss their week and let everyone get a chance to feel heard and seen. This is important because some students may be bottling up their feelings or just need to sit and listen to someone else discussing their hardships. Then for the last 30 minutes, I will have small mental health activities for everyone to participate in. There will be one activity every meeting to maximize the time we have together. Activities include guided meditation (speaker being USCL advisor), coping strategies for stress (speaker being USCL counselor), guided breathing exercises (speaker being USCL advisor), creating self-care kits (face masks, essential oils, stress balls, etc), creating digital vision boards, beginner yoga, creative expression workshops (coloring, drawing, or journaling), and so many more. I will be the leader of these meetings, except when we have a guest speaker on mental health or have a guided coach to help us with the activities.

Receiving Feedback

    It is also important to me to be very open and to receive feedback, so after every meeting, I will send out an email to our members. I will include next week’s theme, with an inspirational quote and a form to send anonymous feedback if there is something they want to say or change about the meetings. I believe this is important because ultimately this takes more effort than just my own. I want this organization to meet the needs of having a stress-free environment and to overall help each individual student who wants to truly participate. My goal is to have this organization as well balanced as possible to encourage a safe environment.

    Having been through mental health struggles myself, it is very important to bring awareness to this topic. Everyone has faced struggles in their life and it’s important to have a network of friends to discuss your struggles with. The nursing students will all be close during their time in college, so this organization gives them a chance to really be open and honest about their struggles on or off campus.

Work Cited

McCoy, Abby. “Nursing Student’s Guide to Mental Health and Wellness.” NursingEducation, 17 Sept. 2024, nursingeducation.org/resources/mental-health-and-wellness/#:~:text=According%20to%20Chapter%204%20of,a%20problem%20with%20substance%20abuse.

Sonmez, Yonca, et al. “Psychological Distress, Depression, and Anxiety in Nursing Students: A Longitudinal Study.” Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), U.S. National Library of Medicine, 21 Feb. 2023, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10001336/#ref-list1.