Abstract
Background: From adolescents transitioning into professional healthcare team members, nursing students need to face different kinds of challenges during their journey of nursing study. Are nursing students ready and prepared to take care of themselves before taking care of others? Aim: Few studies were found on the holistic health of nurses in Macao. This study aims to explore the health status of a group of first-year undergraduate nursing students and to investigate whether a holistic health practice program can enhance their holistic health, self-esteem, and self-efficacy after they participate in the program. Methods: A randomized control study was used. Students in both the experimental and control groups filled in an online pre-test questionnaire, which consisted of some demographic information and the following measurement tools including, the Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile-II (HPLP-II), the Self-Esteem Scale (ESTEEM), and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). The experimental participants had to undergo an additional 6-sessions program on holistic health practice. After the intervention, all participants in both groups were invited to complete an online post-test questionnaire, which was the same as the one used in pre-study. Results: Results showed that participants’ physical activity was the lowest score in 6 domains, followed by their health responsibility. On the other hand, their spiritual growth scored the highest. The study found that participants who had attended the holistic health practice program had significantly enhanced their holistic health, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Conclusion: This study provided some ground data of the holistic health status of nursing students in Macao. It also demonstrated that the Holistic Health Practice Program is effective in promoting holistic health, self-esteem, and self-efficacy among junior nursing students.
Highlights
Nursing students nowadays need to face many challenges during their course of study
The study found that participants who had attended the holistic health practice program had significantly enhanced their holistic health, self-esteem, and self-efficacy
It demonstrated that the Holistic Health Practice Program is effective in promoting holistic health, self-esteem, and self-efficacy among junior nursing students
Summary
Nursing students nowadays need to face many challenges during their course of study. From adolescents transitioning into professional healthcare team members, nursing students need to face different kinds of challenges during their journey of nursing study. Physical education is an elective course for first-year nursing students in this program and is only arranged in the second semester in year one of the study, whereas, nutrition and applied psychology are subjects in the second year of the nursing curriculum. What is their health status holistically when they start to learn to be a nurse? Luk (2013) emphasized the spiritual dimension in holistic care and stated that holistic care was the caring to meet the whole person’s needs in physical (nutritional and biological), psycho-social, cultural, and spiritual aspects, in order to maintain a healthy well-being [15]
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