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.6 page(s