Assisting nursing faculty through the crisis and resolution of student suicide

The statistics on suicide in the United States are noteworthy, with current estimates revealing that one suicide occurs every 17 minutes. Although minimally addressed in the nursing literature in the 1990s, nursing student suicide and its effects remain important topics to revisit. Nursing program administrators and faculty innately know how to assist surviving nursing students through a crisis such as this. However, the same attention and resolve do not appear to be focused on surviving nursing faculty and staff. This article profiles a crisis intervention approach that may be considered for implementation in nursing programs before a crisis (such as a nursing student suicide) occurs so that appropriate and systematic interventions are put into action for all who may be affected.