WenWell Support Circles™: Supporting Capacity, Psychological Safety, and Connection Among Undergraduate Nursing Students

Nursing students continue to navigate increasing academic, emotional, and clinical demands while preparing to enter a healthcare workforce experiencing significant stress, burnout, and workforce instability. The WenWell Support Circle™ model was developed as a structured, facilitator-led wellness intervention operating under the Connecticut Nurse Wellness Project (CTNWP), designed to strengthen Capacity, Psychological Safety, and Connection. This publication summarizes outcomes from a WenWell Support Circle™ conducted with undergraduate nursing students at Southern Connecticut State University. Pre- and post-session WenWell Wellness Index™ scores demonstrated a measurable positive shift in perceived wellness, and qualitative findings highlighted themes related to psychological safety, feeling heard, practical stress management value, and peer connection.

Healthcare systems across the United States continue to experience growing concerns related to burnout, emotional exhaustion, workforce shortages, and mental health strain among healthcare professionals. Increasingly, these concerns are affecting not only practicing clinicians but also students preparing to enter healthcare professions.

Nursing students frequently navigate rigorous coursework, emotionally demanding clinical experiences, performance pressure, financial stressors, and evolving professional identities while attempting to maintain emotional well-being and academic success. Despite these demands, opportunities for structured emotional support, reflection, and psychologically safe dialogue within academic settings may remain limited.

Clinician well-being is a systems-level priority requiring organizational and structural approaches rather than solely individual resilience efforts. Supporting emotional wellness early within nursing education may therefore contribute to workforce readiness, sustainability, emotional resilience, and long-term professional well-being.

The WenWell Support Circle™ model was developed to address this need by creating structured, facilitator-led wellness spaces designed to strengthen emotional awareness, peer support, reflection, psychological safety, and connection. Operating under the Connecticut Nurse Wellness Project (CTNWP), WenWell Support Circles™ align with the broader mission of advancing nurse wellness as both a workforce and systems priority.

The WenWell Support Circle™ is a structured, psychologically safe group experience designed to support emotional well-being through guided reflection, facilitated dialogue, peer engagement, and intentional wellness-centered conversation.

The model is grounded in three foundational domains of the WenWell™ framework: Capacity — an individual's perceived ability to manage academic, clinical, emotional, and personal demands; Psychological Safety — the extent to which individuals feel emotionally safe to express stress, concerns, vulnerability, and authentic experiences without fear of judgment or criticism; and Connection — an individual's experience of belonging, relational support, peer understanding, and interpersonal engagement.

Through guided reflection and facilitated discussion, WenWell Support Circles™ intentionally create spaces where participants are encouraged to process stress, normalize experiences, strengthen emotional awareness, and build supportive peer connection.

Host Organization: Southern Connecticut State University.

Initiative: Connecticut Nurse Wellness Project.

Session Date: April 8, 2026.

Participants: 9 Undergraduate Nursing Students.

Session Length: Approximately 60 Minutes.

Facilitators: Dr. Wendy Garvin Mayo and Dr. Georgia Powell.

Participants completed a pre-session and post-session WenWell Wellness Index™ assessment measuring perceived wellness across the three WenWell™ domains: Capacity, Psychological Safety, and Connection.

The session incorporated facilitated reflection, guided dialogue, peer discussion, emotional processing, and wellness-centered conversation.

Participation in the assessments was voluntary. As a result, pre-session and post-session sample sizes differed. Findings are therefore presented to reflect overall directional trends in participant experience rather than matched individual comparisons.

WenWell Wellness Index™ Results — Pre-Session (n=9): Mean score 56.6 (Strained). Post-Session (n=5): Mean score 67.5 (Stabilizing). Net Change: +10.9 (Positive Shift).

Participants entered the session within the “Strained” category, suggesting moderate stress levels and reduced perceived capacity. Following participation in the WenWell Support Circle™, post-session scores increased to the “Stabilizing” category. The observed +10.9-point increase suggests a meaningful positive shift in perceived wellness following a single session.

These findings indicate that structured wellness-centered reflection and psychologically safe dialogue may positively influence emotional well-being, connection, and perceived support among nursing students.

Participant feedback reflected several consistent themes related to psychological safety, practical value, emotional validation, and peer connection.

Psychological Safety and Feeling Heard — Participants consistently described the session as a space where they felt emotionally acknowledged, validated, and understood. Several students highlighted the importance of having a safe environment where stress and emotional experiences could be discussed openly. Participants shared: “Made me feel seen and heard—it was awesome.” and “A way to be heard and understood about your stress and feelings.” These responses suggest that the Support Circle environment successfully fostered psychological safety and emotional openness among participants.

Relevance and Practical Application — Students described the session as both informative and relevant to their academic and future professional experiences. Participants emphasized the practical nature of the discussion and identified the information as applicable beyond the classroom setting. One participant reflected: “Very informative... useful information that could help myself and so many other people throughout school and future work.” This theme suggests that students perceived the session not only as emotionally supportive but also as professionally meaningful and actionable.

Clarity and Delivery — Participants positively commented on the structure and delivery of the session content. Several students appreciated the concise, direct, and approachable communication style utilized during facilitation. One participant stated: “Information was delivered short and to the point. Very direct.” This finding highlights the value of accessible, practical wellness communication within nursing education environments.

Recommendation and Peer Value — Students expressed willingness to recommend the session to peers, suggesting strong perceived value and relevance. One participant noted: “I would recommend this session...” This theme reinforces the importance of peer-centered wellness spaces within academic nursing programs.

Several considerations should be acknowledged when interpreting the findings from this session. Participation in the WenWell Wellness Index™ assessments was voluntary, resulting in differing pre-session and post-session sample sizes (n=9 pre-session; n=5 post-session).

As a result: findings reflect group-level directional trends, post-session scores do not represent matched individual comparisons, and conclusions should be interpreted as preliminary observations regarding participant experience.

Despite these limitations, findings are consistent with emerging outcomes observed across other WenWell Support Circle™ implementations demonstrating short-term positive shifts in perceived wellness, psychological safety, and connection.

The outcomes from this session suggest that structured psychologically safe wellness interventions may positively influence nursing student perceptions of support, emotional well-being, and connection.

Importantly, participants entered the session within the “Strained” category, reflecting moderate stress and reduced perceived capacity. Following participation, post-session scores shifted into the “Stabilizing” category, suggesting meaningful improvement in participant wellness perception after a single session.

Qualitative findings further reinforce the importance of emotional validation, peer normalization, psychological safety, and practical stress-management discussion within nursing education environments.

There is a clear need for systemic approaches to clinician well-being and workforce sustainability. Integrating structured wellness interventions within nursing education may represent an important upstream strategy for supporting future healthcare professionals before entering practice environments associated with high emotional demand and workforce stress.

The WenWell Support Circle™ model contributes to this growing conversation by providing a scalable, facilitator-led wellness approach focused on strengthening capacity, psychological safety, and connection.

Integrate WenWell Support Circles™ into Student Wellness Initiatives — Structured wellness spaces may provide meaningful emotional support for nursing students navigating academic and clinical stress.

Offer Repeat Sessions Across Academic Terms — Repeated opportunities for reflection and connection may help reinforce wellness practices and sustain emotional support over time.

Embed Capacity, Safety, and Connection into Educational Structures — Academic nursing environments may benefit from intentionally integrating wellness-centered language and support systems throughout curriculum and student engagement initiatives.

Utilize WenWell Wellness Index™ Assessments Longitudinally — Ongoing assessment may help identify wellness trends, emotional needs, and opportunities for targeted intervention within student populations.

The WenWell Support Circle™ demonstrated a measurable and meaningful positive shift in participant wellness perception following a single session.

WenWell Wellness Index™ scores increased from “Strained” (56.6) to “Stabilizing” (67.5), while qualitative feedback reinforced that participants experienced the session as a space where they felt seen, heard, understood, and supported. Students additionally identified practical value in the session content and expressed appreciation for the psychologically safe and direct facilitation approach.

These findings underscore the importance of creating structured wellness environments that intentionally support capacity, psychological safety, and connection within nursing education.

As healthcare systems continue to confront burnout, emotional exhaustion, and workforce sustainability challenges, upstream wellness interventions for healthcare learners may become increasingly important.

The WenWell Support Circle™ model reinforces a central principle of the WenWell™ movement: Wellness is not separate from workforce development. Wellness is workforce development.