Self-Care and Sense of Coherence: A Salutogenic Model for Health and Care in Nursing Education

Abstract

Background: Effective advocacy on self-care and the enhancement of a sense of coherence among nurses don’t only benefit control over one’s health and personal performance, but it may have a direct impact on clinical care and on the entire healing system. In this regard, nursing curricula grounded on a salutogenic model of health (SMH) operate with strategies to engage students in self-care and contribute to improving their mental health and wellbeing. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between self-care agency and a sense of coherence as dependent variables and the age and self-reported academic performance as independent variables in nursing assistant students. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, data were collected from a full sample of 921 Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Spanish students. A self-administered questionnaire, including sociodemographic variables, the ‘appraisal of self-care agency’ (ASA), and the ‘sense of coherence’ (SOC) constructs, was administered. Results: Results: Older participants presented significantly stronger values of both constructs. Apart from a significant and positive correlation between ASAS and SOC, ANOVA analyses indicate signif-icant differences in terms of academic performance according to different ASAS and SOC de-grees. Conclusion: The findings of this study endorse the assumption that there is a consistent relationship between ASA and SOC constructs that might, indeed, have a potential effect on stu-dents’ academic performance. In practical terms, it seems relevant to try to recognise the stu-dents’ self-care agency and the sense of coherence as forceful predictive variables of mental health and wellbeing, in addition to academic success as a strength implied in the future career achievement.

Sexual and gender diversity in cancer care and survivorship

“…Salutogenic factors are factors that affect people's ability to approach and cope with stressful situations that can improve their well being [19]. Reviewing the literature, we also found reports of multiple salutogenic factors within the SGD community in the context of cancer care.…”

A Pilot Feasibility Evaluation of a Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback App to Improve Self-Care in COVID-19 Healthcare Workers

“…Sense of coherence is defined as the capacity to see one’s life as meaningful, comprehensible, and manageable (Antonovsky, 1987 ); and it was developed as part of Antonovsky’s theory of ‘salutogenesis’ (Antonovsky, 1996 )—i.e., the origins of health —or inquiry into the processes that enable one to stay well. Colomer-Pérez et al ( 2022 ) used a salutogenic model of health in a sample of 921 students training to be nursing assistants and found sense of coherence to be positively associated with agency to engage in self-care. Decades of research demonstrating a robust relationship between sense of coherence, lower traumatic stress, and multiples markers of well-being, including burnout and job satisfaction among nurses (Eriksson & Lindström, 2006 ; Masanotti et al, 2020 ; Schäfer et al, 2019 ), creates a solid foundation from which to build a strengths-based, salutogenic intervention to promote health, especially warranted during times of acute distress like the COVID-19 pandemic (Schäfer et al, 2020 ).…”