The sources of support and guidance to help Darika cope with her situation are many and these are likely to include university wellbeing and counselling services as well as those which provide financial advice and formal and informal peer support. Darika may also benefit from careful consideration of assignment guidelines, handbooks, Virtual Learning Environment (such as Blackboard) and library resources. Darika is likely to benefit from seeking advice, for example from, her Personal Tutor, Module Organiser and or Course Director.

Darika’s actions to improve her current situation could include: listing her particular concerns in order of priority and thinking about strategies to manage both the emotional and practical impact of these. She could investigate the resources which are available to help her to cope at this time. It may also benefit Darika to talk through and make sense of her feelings.  Re-reading guidelines and seeking advice to inform the resubmission of her work is likely to be important and by following university policies Darika may be able to seek an extension to the deadline of her course work.

As a friend providing a listening ear to Darika could be very supportive. You could support her to face up to her situation and to plan how to manage her circumstances.  Encouraging Darika to take the initial step of seeking further help and advice may be very helpful.

Jack’s situation could be influenced by a number of factors and his self-awareness is likely to be significant in these circumstances.  The other students at Jack’s placement may have access to more learning opportunities than him or Jack’s perception of this situation may be different to the perceptions of others. Jack’s views could, for example, be influenced by his lack of confidence and/or poor self-efficacy beliefs.  It may be that other students are showing more initiative and willingness than Jack when opportunities arise or it could be that Jack’s supervisor/mentor is not as proactive in helping him to identify the opportunities which are available.  If Jack is becoming worried and this could manifest in him avoiding situations and not recognising that he is doing so. Jack may look outwards for factors which could be influencing his situation but identifying possible actions that he could take to respond to the challenges which he encounters may be a helpful first step.

As Jack’s friend you could encourage him to reflect on his situation from different perspectives, for example, his own, the other students involved and the practice-based staff who are supporting his learning. Jack may then be able to identify actions to take, e.g. to adopt behaviours which show more initiative and willingness to be involved and/or to discuss the situation with his supervisor/mentor.  Jack’s increased engagement and involvement may create a virtuous circle in which his confidence begins to grow and he increasingly puts himself forward for the available opportunities.

Carla may benefit from the opportunity to talk about her feelings and to make sense of these. Carla could come to understand that experiencing grief when a service user or patient dies is not a weakness and can be part of resilient nursing practice.  Being resilient involves experiencing emotions and managing these.  As well as supportive conversations which explore her feelings and experiences Carla may benefit from theoretical learning about the processes of loss and grief.

As a friend you could advise Carla that being resilient involves being flexible and able to ‘bounce back’ and this is not about being rigid and/or tough. Carla could be encouraged to think about her personal coping strategies and what helps her to relax when she is feeling challenged or emotional. Good advice to Carla could include that she develops and invests in positive support networks. Carla could also be made aware that self-belief is likely to be an important part of her resilience.

You could advise Chandran to stand back from his personal feelings and reflect on the many factors which are likely to affect peoples’ behaviour when they are receiving healthcare. Delivering healthcare involves working closely with people and sometimes their negative, or at least lack of positive, responses can feel very personal.  This can be difficult, but it might help Chandran to consider the long-term nature of some service users’ needs and begin to understand that for some people the benefits of and positive feelings about their healthcare may only come over time. Chandran could reflect on the reasons why people may seem unappreciative of his actions. His efforts to understand how to develop and maintain therapeutic relationships and to show empathy to the people he is working with may be significant here.