Peer Wellness Mentor Program
At the Faculty of Nursing, our mission is to care for each other by building psychological health and safety among ourselves and the people we serve. This means that there can be heavy emotional demands in Nursing, and it can be a challenging program, and profession. Our Peer Wellness Mentor program aims to support our students and staff in this endeavour.
Peer Support Upcoming Events
Links to upcoming events supported by the Peer Wellness Mentors. Look here for event details and links for registration.
Recent Events
Photos from some of the fun peer support events promoting mental wellness in the Faculty of Nursing.
Peer support, mentorship, and relationships were key ideas that surfaced from students who participated in the NSSE Engagement Surveys (2021/2022). From this information research was conducted by Faculty Member, Jodie Steffan, to identify some strategies for meeting this need for students. Her detailed gaps analysis combined with in process research by Julia Hews-Girard helped to form the scaffolding this program will be built around:
- Co-designed – strong involvement from students from the Undergraduate program in designing, implementing, and evaluating the program. Nothing for us, without us.
- Structure and support for volunteers – this program will be imbedded in the NP Mental Health and Wellness Clinic initially to ensure strong support for the volunteers and the support they will be providing their peers. By nurses, for nurses.
- Wellness Focus – as opposed to existing programs that focus on career this program will focus on student’s wellness needs and building strategies to prevent illness.
Extensive progress has been made in creating this scaffolding and in the Winter of 2025 this program is moving towards being fully operational.
Peer Wellness Mentor job description
The successful candidate for this volunteer position will work closely with the team at the NP Led Mental Health and Wellness Clinic to promote mental health, resiliency, and overall wellness among Faculty of Nursing members, with a focus on students. They will help create, facilitate, and promote clinic events and be ambassadors for the clinic with their peers. This is a non-clinical role, and it would be beyond the scope of this role to offer counseling, crisis intervention, or therapeutic guidance.