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Well-Being & Resilience

Well-Being & Resilience

AACN actively promotes best practices and exemplars related to faculty and student wellness in our programming. This web page provides an overview of AACN’s initiatives and programs related to maintaining health and well-being.

Advocacy

Member Resolution

A Call to Action for Academic Nurse Leaders to Promote Practices to Enhance Optimal Well-being, Resilience and Suicide Prevention in Schools of Nursing across the U.S.

In August 2020, AACN’s members voted to endorse a resolution that promotes the mental health, physical health, healthy lifestyle behaviors, and well-being of students, faculty, and staff. This call to action includes schools of nursing transitioning from crisis intervention to prevention by building wellness cultures; offering mental health screenings or providing access to them at their supporting institutions; conducting wellness, healthy lifestyle and resiliency programming; and implementing evidence-based interventions to prevent and intervene early for depression, anxiety, and stress in order to support a healthy working and living environment for students, staff, and faculty.

Engagement

In May 2021, AACN was invited by the Johnson & Johnson Center on Health Worker Innovation to serve as a collaborator on a national campaign to promote resilience and wellness in the healthcare workforce called All-In WellBeing First for Healthcare. The All-In campaign is bringing leading organizations together – including the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, American Nurses Foundation, American Organization for Nursing Leadership, the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare, and AACN – to identify a future state where the healthcare workforce feels valued and can sustain a sense of purpose and meaning in their work. The campaign is working to identify and promote strategies, resources, and policies that champion mental health and resilience.

Curricula

Essentials Domain 10: Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development

This domain calls for new ways of preparing nursing graduates using activities and self-reflection that foster personal health, resilience, and well-being, as well as the acquisition of nursing expertise and the assertion of leadership. Competency expectations include:

  • Demonstrate healthy, self-care behaviors that promote wellness and resiliency
  • Contribute to an environment that promotes self-care, personal health, and well-being
  • Evaluate the workplace environment to determine level of health and well-being
  • Engage in guided and spontaneous reflection of one’s practice

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Leadership Development

AACN’s leadership development programs also are committed to elevating awareness of program elements addressing well-being.

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In the News

Below is a sampling of research studies, news articles, and reports focused on mental health, well-being, and resilience compiled from AACN News Watch.

June 2023
Burnout Among Academic Nursing Faculty
Journal of Professional Nursing

May/June 2023
Effective Interventions for Nursing Student Burnout
Nurse Educator

May 2023
Hidden No More: Addressing the Health and Wellness of LGBTQIA+ Individuals in Nursing School Curricula
Journal of Nursing Education

May 2023
Effective Strategies for Combating Faculty Burnout
Higher Education Today

May 2023
Evaluating Burnout and Resiliency in New Graduate Nurses
Journal of Nursing Administration

April 2023
Examining the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Burnout and Stress Among U.S. Nurses
Journal of Nursing Regulation

View All News