Self-care behaviors and practices of nursing students: Review of literature

Abstract

Self-care is a vital component of nursing practice and is essential for the well-being of human beings, that is, both patients and nurses. However, nurses and nursing students tend to focus more on self-care of their patients and often pay little or no attention to personal self-care. This literature review explored self-care behaviors and practices of nursing students in general as well as across academic years of the study. In total, 11 studies were reviewed and critically appraised to identify current trends regarding nursing students’ self-care practices and behaviors in nursing literature. Nursing students realized the importance of maintaining their diet, sleep, and activity level to improve physical and physiological health. However, they tend to neglect self-care practices which could improve their emotional and psychological health because of academic stress, workload, and inadequate knowledge about the strategies to improve self-care in this domain. There is limited evidence for drawing any conclusions regarding students’ use of complementary therapies for self-care, the difference between self-care practices of nursing and non-nursing students, the usefulness of different interventions for improving students’ self-care practices, and the differences between self-care practices and behaviors of students across academic years.

Mindful Self-Care Practice of Nurses in Acute Care: A Multisite Cross-Sectional Survey

“…It was found that female nurses were more involved in mindful self-care than their male counterparts. Inconsistent with this finding, Younas (2017b) after a review of 11 studies on self-care behaviors and practices of nursing students noted that there is limited evidence to support any difference in the self-care behaviors and practices of male and female nursing students. On the other hand, Ahmadi et al (2019) found no difference in male and female nurses’ self-care behaviors.…”

“…Despite the above-noted benefits of mindful self-care, recent research and reviews indicated that nurses and nursing students do not actively engage in physical self-care activities such as regular exercise, refraining from smoking, and healthy dietary habits (Nahm et al, 2012; Younas, 2017b). Research demonstrates that nurses have knowledge about self-care, but the knowledge is not fully translated into their practice (Ross et al, 2017).…”

“…Consistent mindful self-care practices prevent the onset of symptoms of mental health problems, mitigate professional burnout, and improve productivity (Cook-Cottone, 2015; Cook-Cottone & Guyker, 2018; Smith, 2017). Research about nurses’ self-care practices mainly focused on the physical care (Heidari et al, 2018; Ross et al, 2019; Younas, 2017b). However, there is limited research on mindful self-care practices of nurses within clinical settings.…”

The development and implementation of a model to facilitate self-care of the professional nurses caring for critically ill patients

“…The nurses should know that performing the self-care practices deliberately and health-promoting initiatives reduces stress and improve the quality of life. They realize the importance of physical health, including maintaining their diet, adequate sleep, and physical activity to improve physical and psychological well-being [ 36 , 37 ].…”

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

“…Currently, multiple efforts are being made to improve the health of caring professionals [ 46 , 47 ]. However, there are still few studies on nursing students’ health behaviours about self-care [ 48 , 49 , 50 ] despite the fact that these are the next generation of employees in the health system [ 51 , 52 ]. In addition, it is interesting to analyse the process, which relates self-care with the SMH during the studying years, because a powerful SOC seemingly leads to appropriate self-care [ 53 ].…”