Midwifery students' well-being among undegraduates in Slovenia: A pilot study.

OBJECTIVES: Midwifery education is very demanding considering the professional competencies student midwives are required to develop. It can cause different levels of stress to students and affect their learning abilities. With the JDCS (Job Demands-Control-Social support) model adapted for educational purposes we aimed to estimate the midwifery students' coping abilities with study related stress. RESEARCH DESIGN: A quantitative study was conducted using a questionnaire that evaluated perceived demand (9 items), perceived control (10 items), and perceived social support (10 items) with a 5-point Likert scale. 94 students were invited to participate in the study in autumn 2014. All necessary steps to address the ethical issues of the study were undertaken beforehand. FINDINGS: One quarter of Slovenian midwifery students perceived midwifery education as too demanding, while 31% of them thought it was low-strained. 41% answered that the study motivated them. 28% believed that they lacked the possibility to make their own decisions regarding the study. KEY CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that the level of Slovenian midwifery students' well-being is generally high. Using the JDCS model in midwifery education, we could evaluate students' general coping abilities with study related stress. More studies should be performed to evaluate the research tool internationally.

Nursing students' well-being using the job-demand-control model: A longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Students' well-being is very important both for students and institutions. However, this field lacks longitudinal research, which focuses on the change of nursing students' well-being during their study. In order to asses such changes the four study types according to Job-Demand-Control-Support-model were used: passive, high-strain, low-strain, and active. DESIGN: A longitudinal design was employed: participants were recruited in 2010/2011 (phase I) and at the end of their study in 2012 (phase II). SETTINGS: The study was performed in one school of health care in a university of applied sciences in Finland. PARTICIPANTS: The final sample consisted of 135 nursing students (BSc) who started their study either in September 2008 or January 2009, and finished in December 2011 or May 2012. METHODS: The participants responded to the same close-ended questionnaire in both phases. RESULTS: The majority of the participants experienced the study type as low-strain (phase I: 61.5%; phase II: 48.2%). The distribution according to their study type did not change substantially between both phases, although 42.2% of the participants changed their study type. The major changes of study types were from low-strain to others (21.4%), and from other study types to the active one (12.6%). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the majority of students do not change their study type and consequentially their well-being during their study, which is in contrast with previous research. Special attention should be put to the identification of students who change their study type to high-strain or remain in it.

Students' well-being in nursing undergraduate education.

BACKGROUND: Although previously the Job-Demand-Control-Support model has been successfully applied in many studies in the field of health care and education, the model was never used for the evaluation of the nursing students' well-being. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to promote nursing students' well-being. The objective was to verify whether the Job-Demand-Control-Support model is appropriate for the evaluation of their well-being. DESIGN: The Job-Demand-Control-Support model was implemented and investigated in a multiple-case study, which consisted of two phases. In phase I the students' well-being along with the perceived levels of control, support, and demand for each individual student during their study were identified. These results were used in phase II, where the usefulness of the presented model was evaluated. SETTINGS: The study was performed at the end of the academic year 2009/2010 in two institutions: Tampere University of Applied Sciences, School of Health Care, Finland (institution 1); and the University of Primorska, Faculty of Health Sciences, Slovenia (institution 2). PARTICIPANTS: Participants of the study were nursing graduates who finished their studies in 2009/2010 and the Vice-Deans for education of both institutions. The final sample included 83 students in institution 1 and 79 students in institution 2. METHODS: The case study was combined with a survey (phase I) and an interview (phase II). RESULTS: Although the students' well-being in these two institutions was different, most students of both institutions perceived their studies as low strain, placid, and only some of the students in both institutions had a high risk of malaise. The Vice-Deans for education of both institutions confirmed that the application of the Job-Demand-Control-Support model provided relevant information on the nursing students' well-being, which helped in planning improved nursing study programmes. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that the Job-Demand-Control-Support model is appropriate for estimating undergraduate nursing students' well-being.