Peer Support
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 Support program aims to support our students and staff in this endeavour.
Peer Support Information Meetings
Curious about the opportunity but want to learn more? Have an idea you'd like to share? Come for snacks and a chat about this opportunity within the Faculty of Nursing. For Undergraduate Nursing Students only.
*Note - we can accomodate interested rural students via zoom.
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 Stefan, 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 Fall of 2024 this program is moving towards recruitment and implementation.
Amanda Loates - Volunteer Coordinator for the Peer Wellness Program
Peer Wellness Support is something that I seemed to have fallen into with my work at the NP Led Mental Health and Wellness Clinic. But the more I participated in the research and its development the more I realized it aligned very closely to my belief that we must be looking after ourselves in a very mindful and conscientious way. As nurses we are very adept at caring for others, and focusing on the other, but we cannot maintain the level of care and engagement with our clients if we don’t tend to our own feelings and experiences. With peer wellness support, not only are students learning strategies to look after themselves, but they can then share that forward, support each other with implementation, and create a culture in the Faculty the prioritizes the nurses’ wellness too; so our students can stay in the profession as long as they want to.
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.