DNP students create video offering steps to help cope during pandemic

Students in the University of Minnesota’s psychiatric mental health specialty in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program were quick to identify the need for an action-orientated approach to help address feelings surfacing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As they experienced transitions to new ways of learning, uncertainty about how to accomplish requirements and missed milestones, the DNP students turned to the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy, and specially, to an approach developed by Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap. Using the acronym FACE COVID, he spells out practical steps for dealing with these feelings. Steps include focusing on what’s in your control, acknowledging feelings and committing to action.

Given the usefulness of the approach, the DNP students, with faculty advising by Clinical Associate Professor Barbara Peterson, PhD, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, created a video describing the nine principles and invited other students to use them as well, delivering the message that we can face COVID together.