Throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic the Queen’s University Belfast Connections (QUB Connections) project has provided online well-being support to nursing students and student midwives. The project, which was co-designed and led by students and academic staff, provided an online well-being service for students who took on front-line roles during the early part of the pandemic and for those who had to pause their studies. Insights gained from responses to an evaluation of the support sessions suggested that some students felt stigmatised, frightened, lost, isolated and abandoned during this period, but that QUB Connections gave them a sense of ‘being held’ and ‘attended to’ in a time of uncertainty.

The evaluation findings are a reminder of the need to continue to help nursing and midwifery students and newly qualified staff develop self-care and support mechanisms. QUB Connections is now embedded in the university’s school of nursing and midwifery pre-registration programmes to support students and those new to nursing and midwifery practice.