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

Nursing students are entering academic and clinical environments during a time of increasing workforce stress, emotional fatigue, burnout, and psychological strain across healthcare systems. The WenWell Support Circle™ model was developed as a 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 50-minute Support Circle conducted with undergraduate nursing students at the University of Connecticut. Pre- and post-session WenWell Wellness Index scores demonstrated a measurable improvement in perceived wellness, and qualitative feedback highlighted themes of self-awareness, normalization, psychological safety, and actionable stress management insight.

Healthcare systems across the United States continue to experience significant workforce strain related to burnout, emotional exhaustion, staffing shortages, and mental health challenges. Increasingly, these stressors are impacting not only practicing clinicians but also students entering healthcare professions.

Nursing students often navigate rigorous academic expectations, emotionally demanding clinical experiences, financial stressors, identity transitions, and performance pressure while simultaneously preparing to enter a strained workforce environment. Despite these realities, many nursing students report limited structured opportunities for emotional processing, peer support, psychological safety, and wellness-centered reflection within educational settings.

Clinician well-being is increasingly recognized as a systems-level issue requiring organizational and structural approaches rather than solely individual resilience efforts. Early wellness interventions within nursing education may therefore play an important role in strengthening emotional well-being, workforce readiness, and sustainable professional development.

The WenWell Support Circle™ model was developed to address this gap by creating structured, facilitator-led spaces that intentionally support reflection, emotional processing, connection, and psychological safety among healthcare learners and professionals. Operating under the Connecticut Nurse Wellness Project (CTNWP), the Support Circle model aligns with the broader mission of advancing nurse wellness as a workforce and systems priority.

The WenWell Support Circle™ is a structured, psychologically safe, facilitator-led group experience designed to strengthen emotional wellness through guided reflection, peer dialogue, emotional awareness, and intentional connection.

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

The Support Circle model intentionally creates environments where participants are encouraged to reflect openly, normalize shared experiences, strengthen emotional awareness, and engage in supportive peer dialogue.

Host Organization: University of Connecticut.

Initiative: Connecticut Nurse Wellness Project.

Session Date: February 10, 2026.

Participants: 16 Undergraduate Nursing Students.

Session Length: 50 Minutes.

Facilitator: Dr. Wendy Garvin Mayo.

Participants completed the WenWell Wellness Index™ immediately before and after the session. The index measures perceived wellness across the three WenWell™ domains: Capacity, Psychological Safety, and Connection.

The session incorporated facilitated reflection, guided discussion, emotional processing, peer dialogue, strength-based reframing, and wellness-centered conversation. Qualitative feedback was collected following the session to better understand participant experiences and perceived impact.

WenWell Wellness Index™ Results — Pre-Session: Mean score 67.8 (Stabilizing). Post-Session: Mean score 77.5 (Thriving). Net Change: +9.7 (Positive Shift).

Following participation in one 50-minute WenWell Support Circle™, students demonstrated a measurable improvement in perceived wellness across the domains of capacity, psychological safety, and connection.

The observed shift from the “Stabilizing” category to the “Thriving” category suggests that even brief structured wellness interventions may positively influence students' emotional experiences and perceptions of support.

Analysis of participant responses identified four primary themes.

1. Self-Awareness — Participants described increased awareness regarding personal stress patterns, emotional experiences, and behavioral responses. Several students reflected on the value of pausing to evaluate what was contributing to their stress and identify areas requiring intentional change. One participant shared: “It helps you reflect on what's working for you and what you want to change.”

2. Normalization and Belonging — Students expressed relief in recognizing that others were experiencing similar stressors, emotional concerns, and academic pressures. The session appeared to reduce feelings of isolation and reinforced a sense of shared experience and community. One participant stated: “It made me realize other students are also feeling the same way.”

3. Psychological Safety — Participants described feeling emotionally permitted to acknowledge stress and vulnerability within the session space. The facilitated environment encouraged openness, reflection, and authentic discussion without fear of judgment. One participant reflected: “It helped me realize that it's okay to be stressed.”

4. Practical Insight and Stress Management Awareness — Students identified actionable insights related to stress management, workload awareness, boundaries, and coping strategies. The session appeared to support not only emotional processing but also practical reflection regarding sustainable wellness behaviors. One participant shared: “It was helpful in identifying stressors and how to deal with them.”

Several observations emerged during facilitation of the session. Participants demonstrated strong engagement throughout the discussion and became increasingly open following the establishment of group expectations and psychological safety guidelines.

Students appeared particularly receptive to reflective dialogue, normalization of stress, peer validation, and strength-based reframing approaches centered on personal “superpowers.” The group demonstrated readiness for continued emotional support, reflective discussion, and capacity-building work within academic nursing environments.

The findings from this session suggest that structured wellness interventions may positively influence nursing student perceptions of emotional well-being, support, and connection even within brief timeframes. The observed increase in WenWell Wellness Index™ scores following a single 50-minute session highlights the potential impact of psychologically safe peer-support environments within nursing education.

Importantly, qualitative findings demonstrated that students valued emotional normalization, self-awareness, connection, and practical wellness insight. These findings are particularly relevant given increasing concerns surrounding nurse burnout, emotional exhaustion, workforce sustainability, and mental health within healthcare systems.

Clinician well-being must be addressed through systemic and organizational strategies. Integrating structured wellness support within nursing education may therefore represent an important upstream workforce investment. The WenWell Support Circle™ model contributes to this conversation by offering a scalable, facilitator-led approach focused on emotional wellness, psychological safety, and relational connection.

Integrate Support Circles into Nursing Curriculum — Embedding structured wellness and reflection opportunities within nursing education may strengthen emotional support and workforce readiness.

Offer Sessions at Key Transition Points — Support Circles may be particularly beneficial during periods of increased stress such as clinical transitions, examination periods, orientation experiences, and preparation for licensure or graduation.

Conduct Longitudinal Follow-Up — Additional evaluation may help determine sustained impact on emotional well-being, psychological safety, resilience, and student retention over time.

Expand Across Healthcare Learner Populations — The model may also be beneficial for graduate nursing students, interdisciplinary healthcare learners, and practicing healthcare professionals.

This session demonstrated that structured psychologically safe wellness spaces may produce measurable shifts in perceived student wellness within a relatively brief timeframe. The WenWell Support Circle™ model offers a practical and scalable approach for strengthening emotional well-being, connection, and psychological safety among nursing students and healthcare professionals.

As healthcare systems continue to confront burnout, emotional exhaustion, workforce shortages, and mental health concerns, wellness-centered interventions that prioritize reflection, belonging, and emotional support may become increasingly important.

The WenWell Support Circle™ model reinforces a central principle of the WenWell™ movement: Wellness is not an individual luxury. It is a workforce and systems imperative.