Healthcare students face growing mental health challenges, especially since COVID-19. This initiative uses surveys, focus groups, and program improvements to enhance well-being and create a healthier learning environment.
The Need:
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, poor mental health and wellbeing have been highlighted across healthcare professional and student populations.
The Solution:
To address concerns of decreased student wellbeing, a quality improvement initiative began in the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program to discover influential wellbeing factors and possible programmatic improvements to address these factors.
In partnership with Elation Inc., wellbeing surveys were administered to the three cohorts of the DPT program throughout the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years and results analyzed to better understand factors impacting wellbeing scores. Additionally, journey mapping, focus groups, and interviews were conducted to discuss student and faculty perspectives and collaborate on possible programmatic improvements for student wellbeing.
Through these discoveries, implementations have been made such as improved student pre-matriculation and orientation processes and creation of wellbeing resources for students.