Temple University Nursing Program: A Story About Mental Health

View of Temple University Hospital on the main Health Science Campus from N Broad Street.

Temple University Nursing Program: A Story About Mental Health Stella Stroud, 2023.

Temple “T” logo placed on top of Temple University Hospital on the main Health Science Campus.

Mandy Patt, Sonya Benegal, Sophia Simeral, and Ryan Papazian, third year nursing students of Temple University met on Thursday Nov. 30, 2023 to discuss their nursing experience thus far. As third year nursing students their weekly routine consists one 12 hour clinical rotation, one 6 hour community home rotation, nursing lab, two days of regular required classes and lots of studying. Their clinical rotations take place at the Temple University Hospital on the main Health Science campus as well as the Temple University Episcopal Hospital in North Philadelphia, PA. Community home rotation locations vary from local elementary schools, nursing homes, and small clinics in areas of North Philadelphia where help is in high demand. While North Philadelphia is an area notorious for extreme drug use, homelessness, violence, and poverty, the four nursing students view working in said locations as an opportunity for their future careers. Patt stated, “I don’t think any other school would have given us the opportunity to see the things that we see and I think that’s really important as a nurse because we’ve seen the worst of it so we can do whatever we want, and some people from other schools can’t say that.”

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“There’s a lot of people that need help in this area that are just getting neglected...” “...Like drug users, when they are in the hospital it’s awful the things they tell you. Like ‘I never used to be like this’, ‘a couple days ago I could walk,’ ‘I don’t wanna be like this.’ But they have no choice. So many of them will come and get the help they need in the hospital and then get released. They literally walk them to the front door and leave them because they can’t do anything, so they are just bringing them back out to the street handing them over and then we see them again in a couple of weeks.” - Sophia Simeral

Sophia Simeral demonstrates how to use a blood pressure cuff.

Mandy Patt uses stethoscope to listen to mock patient, Vivian Allegretti’s lungs.

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With little to no mental health support provided by Temple University, Simeral explains “it’s exhausting, doing that (a clinical shift) on top of everything else (school and/or work) plus dealing with what we see at the hospital, it’s heavy and a lot of what we see ways on you.” The combination of the demanding nature of the nursing program and the intense clinical experiences has led to emotions of stress, exhaustion, anxiety, and even depression for Patt, Benegal, Simeral, and Papazian. “I’ve had a lot of low moments where I’ve felt really burnt out” said Papazian. During their 12 hour clinical rotation, the instructors provide sometimes as little as 15 minutes for students to debrief any emotional experiences of their shift. Clinical debrief is the only mental health support throughout the week that Temple University nursing students are provided. The four students claim that they feel the only form of support they receive is from a few of their nursing instructors, but overall the university and program itself lacks an effective mental health support system.

Nursing students practice using stethoscope while debreifing their last clinical of the semester.

Up-close shot of stethoscope. Each Temple University nursing student is required to have a personal stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, and pen light.

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Mandy Patt, Ryan Papazian, Sophia Simeral, and Sonya Benegal reviewing report papers of patient status. Report papers are useed to train nursing students to memorize daily information about their patients.

Benegal stated that one of the hardest parts of the program for her has been balancing school work and self-care. “I feel like it’s at the point where you feel guilty for doing any type of self-care. Everyone preaches self-care but then you take too long of a shower and start to feel stressed because you should be reading” said Benegal. The students further explained that nursing students do not receive wellness days.

On the days the rest of the university takes the day off from classes for the purpose of a mental health break, nursing students must report to their clinical rotation if they are on the schedule that day. Correspondingly, Simeral stated that she feels having mental health days every so often would really benefit her and her peers. When asked about how they feel when thinking about their future career as a nurse, Benegal explained, “I already work one 8 hour shift as an extern nurse and by the end of that I’m exhausted, so to think of having to do three twelve hour shifts makes me really anxious. I am already thinking of backup plans for my future incase I get really burnt out.” Burnout is a significant and pervasive issue within the nursing profession, impacting both experienced nurses and those in training.The chronic exposure to challenging patient cases, complex medical scenarios, and the need for quick decision-making can contribute to a sense of overwhelming pressure. When following up with Patt about how she copes with the stress of the nursing program, she explained “a lot of people find their clicks early on in the nursing program as their form of support because of the lack of support from Temple University. I found my click first semester of sophomore year and I couldn’t have made it through most of the program without them.”

Mandy Patt practices checking Ryan Papazian’s pulse.

Mandy Patt, Sophia Simeral, Sonya Benegal represent Temple University Nursing Program in their Temple cherry maroon scrubs.

Med report paper that nursing students are required to use during each clinical rotation.

This paper trains students to remember essential information about their assigned patients.

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Unfiltered Experiences from Temple University Nursing Students.

When asked if they felt like being a nursing student has had an impact on their mental health, Patt, Benegal, Simeral, and Papazian immediately replied “yes.” They further shared stories from their training that were difficult experiences to navigate and overcome.

Portrait of 21-year-old Temple University nursing student, Ryan Papazian.

“It was on our second day of med search clinical this semester and half of us were called in by our instructor to go look at a demonstration of a wound change on a guy who was homeless in Kensington...” “...I just remember looking at the flesh while he told us ‘I wasn’t like this before, I was a different man, I was a good man, I was more handsome than this.’ It was sad to see because he has had this cycle happen to him so many times repeated, he’s always going through rehab centers. He literally couldn’t walk because his legs were so badly wounded from all the xylazine he was shooting up. It was our first time seeing something like this and it was really really hard.” -Ryan Papazian

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Portrait of 21-year-old Temple University nursing student, Mandy Patt.

“Sonya and I were asked by a nurse to do diabetes checks on patients and she gave us a list and we happened to pick the most random room out of the list...” “...We went in and it was my patient and he was slumped over in bed and breathing really heavily.

Sonya gave the patient a sternal rub, which is where you rub someone really hard to wake them up and he wasn’t responding. Then Sonya asked me if that was his baseline (how he normally was) and I said no.

So I went to go find the nurse to tell her and she was like ‘ he is dying’ so we go back in and we just stood with him. Sonya was holding his hand and everyone was kinda just like ‘it’s okay you can go.’ And then we stood there while he died and afterwards we had to take care of his body. We had to take out his IV’s, clean him, put the body bag underneath him and then we had to get him ready for his family to come see him.” -Sophia Simeral Portrait of 21-year-old Temple University nursing student, Sonya Benegal.

“We had to make the bag as hidden as possible so when his family or friends came it wasn’t obvious he was on a body bag.” -Sonya Benegal

Encounters like these have left a lasting impression on each of the four nursing students, yet it is during hospital clinicals and community home rotations that they find the most fulfillment in the nursing program.

Actively engaging in helping people is the reason why they chose the path of nursing school.

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Portrait of 21-year-old Temple University nursing student, Sophia Simeral.