Resiliency and Self-Care Behaviors in Health Professional Schools

J Holist Nurs. 2020 Dec;38(4):373-381. doi: 10.1177/0898010120933487. Epub 2020 Jun 19.

Abstract

Background: Resilience is crucial for students in health schools as care becomes more complex and as the adjustment to meet patient, environmental, and professional demands with success can seem a daunting challenge. Self-care activities can support the development of resilience in the student population. The purpose of this study is to explore and describe self-care practices, health-promoting behaviors, and resilience among students, faculty, and staff of the health professional schools at a large metropolitan university. Method: This was a cross-sectional study of data from 148 participants. Analysis included descriptive statistics, t tests, analysis of variance, crosstabs, and Pearson correlations. Results: Resilience was lower among students than among faculty and staff. The most frequent self-care activities were humor and music. Resilience was significantly correlated with the self-care behaviors of praying (p = .006), healthy sleeping habits (p = .024), reading (p = .007), and mindful acceptance (p = .025); yoga and meditation were not significantly correlated with resilience.

Keywords: health promotion; holistic; resilience; self-care; students.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Faculty / psychology*
  • Faculty / statistics & numerical data
  • Female
  • Health Occupations / education*
  • Health Occupations / statistics & numerical data
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Resilience, Psychological*
  • Self Care / classification
  • Self Care / methods*
  • Self Care / statistics & numerical data
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Texas