Menu

Menu controller icon

Stressing the need

Posted: 24-09-2021

Author: Jim Prendergast

Tags:

  • Research
  • Walton News

In our latest blog post, Jim Prendergast, Business Development Executive at the TSSG Technology Gateway at Walton Institute, discusses stress, work-life balance and STTeMM, a new application aimed to promote physical and mental health of students and staff in Higher Education Institutions.

Our lives, both in the personal and work/educational, have that word attached to it – stress. There are often articles and speakers on how to “cope”, how to “deal” with stress and the various steps involved to stress utopia.

What if we sat down to research knowledge, skills and competencies to address occupational stressors (both personal and environmental). This is exactly what the Student Stress Training e-Mobile Management (STTeMM) project (funded under Erasmus Plus and led by Prof John Wells in the School of Health Sciences at Waterford Institute of Technology) aims to do, by promoting the physical and mental wellbeing of students and staff in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

SSTeMM aims to develop an end-user (which we define as internship student, internship mentor, hosting industry and HEI staff) accessible digital mobile platform of targeted work-based education, competency training and in vivo self-reflection learning opportunities to equip students and workplace mentors with the knowledge, skills and competencies to address occupational stressors (both personal and environmental). The Walton Institute are one of the parties on the project with Catherine Cunniffe from the PSES (Professional Software Engineering Services) heading up from the Walton end.

The project takes a particular look at the nursing profession. A personal stress factor assessment survey is just one part of the project. The survey will analyse critical stress factors in nurses work, as well as resources to cope with them. At the end of the analysis, a result will link to factors that have the strongest impact. Some factors considered are: conditions and workflow, roles and responsibilities, leadership, organisational climate and control.

A separate project, led by Dr Rita Berger from the the University of Barcelona, and funded by Erasmus Plus, looks at work life flow (https://www.work-life-flow.eu/). It involves a number of European universities addressing concerns of work-life balance since the onset of COVID-19. The Irish arm of the project is being led by Prof John Wells, Dean of the School of Health Sciences at Waterford Institute of Technology in collaboration with the Irish Work Study Institute.

The Irish arm of the work life flow project is a three year study looking at how remote working has become the norm for many the past year and, while it has its advantages, employees have struggled to separate work and home life in the same physical space.

The Walton Institute looks to the future of healthcare. The transformation that Mobile, IoT, Mixed reality, Big Data and AI can bring to the healthcare industry are central to placing the patient and their needs at the centre of healthcare delivery. A more personalised approach to healthcare is being driven with the patient engagement and gain being at the very core and the increased use of information and technology is assisting this drive.

Find out more about STTeMM.

Download the STTeMM app from the Apple App Store.