Self-care integration into a prelicense nursing curriculum

Background: Both nursing students and nurses face stressors. Part of a strong nursing professional identity includes the ability to perform self-care activities. However, self-care has not been a formalized component of nursing education. Methods: This mixed-methods scholarship of teaching and learning project used a pre-post design with survey and narrative responses to determine relationships between purposeful integration of self-care spaces and mini lessons and students’ perceived self-care barriers, motivators, and participation. Results: Results indicated positive changes on many aspects of the survey, particularly in stress control, relaxation, and work-life balance; however, there was a decline in reported sleep. The most popular mini lessons were exercise, sleep hygiene, meditation, and meal preparation. Time emerged as a major barrier to participation in self-care activities, along with low motivation and self-imposed expectations. Conclusions: Incorporating a variety of self-care opportunities into the first semester of a nursing program may be a beneficial way to support students. Self-care activities could also be scaffolded throughout the program to reinforce learning and contribute to professional identity formation.