Teaching the Whole Student: Integrating Wellness Education into the Academic Classroom

Abstract

College students are increasingly reporting higher stress, which can negatively influence their personal and intellectual development. Greater academic challenges and new social experiences in college may be accompanied by stressors like mental health issues, family concerns, or financial pressures. To help students manage stress, institutions typically provide resources through health services, student life or student affairs, recreation departments, or other entities that operates primarily outside the academic program. Recently, some institutions have integrated wellness education into the academic curriculum, leveraging the power of the classroom to deliver important lessons about accessible, evidence-based wellness strategies. Here we investigate if a first-year interdisciplinary writing class designed to help students learn about physical and mental wellbeing actually improved students’ awareness of their wellbeing and their confidence as first year learners. We share details of the course design, evidence of student learning, and advice for incorporating wellness content throughout the curriculum.

Sustaining student wellness in higher educational institutions: Possible design principles and implementations strategies

“…7 Students are most often of a healthy physical and euthymic state as they embark on their studies during their HE career. 6,8 The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that mental health accounts for 13% of the global disease burden, and that suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst 15-29-year-olds. 9 The HE students are part of the most vulnerable group when considering issues of mental health, emotional disorders, and psychological problems.…”

“…12 During the first few months of university, depression and anxiety related signs and symptoms increase, particularly for female students. 6,8 A previous study conducted on Psychology, Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing students identified that 52% of students suffer from some degree of depression: 25% suffer from mild depression, 19% from moderate depression and an alarming 8% of study participants suffered from major depression. 13 A more recent study on anxiety and depression concluded that medical students scored 61% higher for anxiety and 70% higher for depression during, what they call, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era.…”

“…7,12 Numerous academic articles have tried to address the issues related to introduction of wellness initiatives into the current curricula of health professionals, which is riddled with time, financial and staff capacity confinements. 8 Most HE institutions have various wellness strategies they offer their students, all with a common goal of achieving a sense of wellness. 18 Teaching wellness strategies during formal training brings noteworthy benefits for the HE students.…”

“…10,15 The acknowledged benefits of wellness education in HE settings are validated by several scholars in relation to the place, intended purpose, and impact of wellness strategies and courses. 8,10,12,18 When wellness initiatives and methods are taught in HE courses, students are offered opportunities to learn various skills and strategies that can be applied both in the classroom and beyond.…”

How do University Experiences Contribute to Students’ Psychological Wellbeing?

“…In support of this premise, educators argue that the university curriculum is the metaphorical glue that holds the student experience together and therefore the most efficient context for fostering student wellbeing (e.g., Baik et al, 2017;McInnis, 2001). They embed new initiatives to support wellbeing within curricula with impressive outcomes (e.g., Johnson et al, 2019). For example, the work by Craig Hassed and colleagues has demonstrated the effectiveness of embedding programs and mindfulness training within tertiary programs (e.g., Hassed et al, 2009;Lo, Francis-Cracknell & Hassed, 2017).…”