REDUCING THE STIGMA

One CONHI researcher’s timely findings are pivotal to reducing the stigma around mental health and advocating for more resources for graduating nurses as they transition to practice.

“We are just now normalizing conversations around the mental health of health care providers, and this has been due in part to COVID-19,” says Regina Urban, assistant professor, who studies the relationship between nursing, stress, and resilience.

With 24 years of nursing experience in both nursing and psychology, Dr. Urban is uniquely suited to this line of study. In addition, over the past two years, she’s seen firsthand the pandemic’s profound impact on new nurses’ mental health.

“You take an event that’s already complex, the transition to nursing practice [which] takes by our best estimation about a year to accomplish, and then you throw on top of it a pandemic…this has been a challenging time for new graduate nurses,” she says.

Urban’s latest study, performed during the height of the Delta variant, gathered quantitative data from 192 nursing alumni who graduated between December 2019 and 2020. In her study, she found a marked increase in stress, anxiety, and depression in new nurses, particularly four to eight months into their transition. This valuable information, says Urban, “will help move the conversation forward on nurses’ mental health.”

Now more than ever, new graduate nurses need to develop practical skills to unpack the mental and emotional challenges that arise during the transition to practice. “Now the real question,” Urban says, “is what can we do to help?”

1981-85

The School of Nursing received a grant from the DFW Hospital Council to increase undergraduate enrollment.

The School of Nursing moved into the newly constructed Nursing Building.

The school achieved National League for Nursing reaccreditation.