Supporting mental health and wellness of bioengineering students

Miller, Isabel

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115441 Copy

Description

Title

Supporting mental health and wellness of bioengineering students

Author(s)

Miller, Isabel

Issue Date

2022-04-26

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

• Jensen, Karin J
• Golecki, Holly

Department of Study

Bioengineering

Discipline

Bioengineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• wellness
• mental health
• engineering
• bioengineering
• engineering culture
• stress

Abstract

College students are facing an increase in mental health challenges. A student’s identity, such as race and gender, may influence their mental health, stigma, and help-seeking behaviors. Research suggests that a student’s academic identity also influences attitudes and behavior. Ethnographic studies of engineering culture identify engineering students as having particular views of themselves and others, often identifying with the hard-working, always stressed characterization of a typical engineer. This toughness mentality may create a culture in engineering where wellness is not valued. Therefore, it is important to understand the engineering identity and its unique influences on attitudes to mental health and seeking care to not only be able to better help the general engineering student population, but specific groups. As we understand the intersection of various student identities, we can create targeted solutions for every student in need of mental health services. The following work describes two projects investigating student attitudes towards wellness and barriers to accessing mental health care, with the aim of improving student wellness. One takes place in an introductory bioengineering course for first-year students. The second takes place in an upper-class technical bioengineering course on transport. In the introductory course, students are introduced to mindfulness and complete a project centered on wellness using biomedical devices to monitor their own physiological data while engaging in a stress-reducing activity. In the transport course, the instructor introduced mindfulness activities at the end of class to additionally support students during the shift to online learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both groups of students responded positively to the mindfulness activities. First-year students enjoyed the wellness project and were excited to use commercial devices to measure their own physiological data. These implementations demonstrate that wellness activities and topics introduced into courses are positively received and appreciated by students, suggesting an opportunity to incorporate wellness topics into courses as a way to improve engineering student wellness.

Graduation Semester

2022-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Isabel Miller

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