Wellbeing during COVID-19: A social media takeover

Abstract

Introduction: Student wellbeing is a key component of pharmacy programmes, with most events occurring in-person through co-curricular or extra-curricular activities. With the shift to online classes due to COVID-19, many wellness events were cancelled due to social distancing limitations. However, promotion of wellbeing was considered to be of utmost importance during this time due to rising levels of stress and social isolation among students. Description: The school’s Instagram and Facebook accounts were managed by a group of the university’s faculty for six weeks. Each week, different daily wellness themes were shared and participation by followers encouraged through quizzes, polls, or reposts. The Instagram stories and posting platforms were used routinely with select posts also shared via Facebook. A new hashtag was created and promoted to encourage additional posting and community building. Video stories were also shared of faculty expressing their mental/physical health challenges and subsequent coping mechanisms during COVID-19. Results: During the last six weeks of virtual learning, 280 stories and 23 posts were shared via Instagram. Shared stories included promotion of: cardiovascular exercise, weight training, yoga, music, media, gratitude, recognition, positive thinking, coping and games. Overall, 20 different faculty and staff were involved in sharing video stories to promote wellbeing. Of the 13 posts also shared to Facebook, a total of 10,429 people were reached. Conclusion: School social media platforms can be used to regularly connect virtually during times of crises. Promoting wellness activities can help engage students and faculty/staff to ensure they are focusing on their own wellbeing. With social distance regulations for the foreseeable future, pharmacy programs should consider using social media as a wellbeing tool for both student and faculty/staff engagement

Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Self-Determination: A Review of Russian Studies

“…e use of emotional coping strategies is largely determined by the need to regulate the self in response to stressors assessed as threats (Amiot et al, 2008). ese strategies focus on self-management through physical activity, meditative practices (Burch et al, 2021), and the release of emotions (Zimmer & Dunn, 2021). Coping with helping others, learning new activities, and organizing and communicating in the pandemic situation allowed for a sense of connection with others, "distraction from stress, " selfdevelopment, and increasing one's own competence.…”

A Scientometric Analysis of Wellbeing Research in the Construction Industry

“…The search terms were categorized into two parts. The first part includes terms related to wellbeing, such as 'wellbeing' [17,18], 'wellness' [16,19], 'well-being' [5,14], 'health and wellbeing' [20], and 'subjective wellbeing' [5,7], and other dimensions of wellbeing. The second part includes terms related to the construction industry, such as 'construction industry' [43], 'built environment' [44,45], and 'building industry' [46].…”

“…The usage of the terms "wellbeing" and "wellness" in the literature has been varied, prompting the need for a more thorough evaluation. Some scholarly works use these terms interchangeably in their discussions [16][17][18]. This viewpoint suggests that wellbeing and wellness are essentially synonyms, both referring to the assessment of an individual's satisfaction level with respect to their subjective and objective needs.…”

“…Additionally, there are different word associations related to wellbeing, such as 'emotional wellbeing', 'physical wellbeing', 'social wellbeing', 'economic wellbeing', 'psychological wellbeing', 'mental wellbeing', and 'subjective wellbeing', which further contribute to its complexity [5][6][7]. These dimensions have found applications in diverse fields, including education [18], economics, and politics [19], psychology [21], management [22], medical science [17], tourism [23], and construction [24]. Additional dimensions include digital wellness [25], digital wellbeing [26], health and safety [27], financial wellness [28], and financial wellbeing [29].…”

Self-Determination as a Mechanism for Personality Sustainability in Conditions of Daily Stress

“…A significant result of using the surveys to study ways to cope in the pandemic was the description of active behavior strategies (Table 2), which include various types of social support (Adams [48], Burch [61], Pagnini [67], Jiang [45], Rodriguez-Rey [56], and others) and their dynamics. Thus, in a family setting in May (T1) and September 2020 (T2), the most common strategies included family activities (72% of parents in T1; 66% in T2), virtual communication with family/friends (68% in T1; 56% in T2), involving a child in the daily routine (53% on T1; 59% on T2), etc.…”