Chapter 8: Resilience

Case study: Abha

Abha is a Child Health nursing student at the beginning of her programme. Nursing is not as she had expected and she has experienced the distress of the children she has cared for during her placements as very difficult to cope with. Abha has also found herself making unhelpful judgments about the parents who she has met during her first placement. Abha was hospitalised for long periods herself as a child and is wondering if her own experiences are impacting on her ability to cope with her initial experiences on her programme.

  • Who could Abha discuss her current feelings with?

  • What support is available at your university to help Abha ensure her personal experiences do not negatively impact upon her nursing programme? 

› Solution

  • Abha could benefit from discussing her thoughts and feelings with her Mentor, Link lecturer and/or Personal Tutor. Abha is having new experiences and exploring these will be important as she becomes professionally socialised into her new role as a student nurse.

  • Similar to Darika in the previous case study, Abha’s other sources of support and guidance to help cope with her situation are likely to include university wellbeing and counselling services as well as those which provide formal and informal peer group support.