Abstract:

Current literature acknowledges that undergraduate students undertaking programmes in Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health Professions experience occupational stress which presents as detriment to mental health, psychological wellbeing (PWB) and burnout. Strategies to improve the wellbeing of students have been slow to embed and have had limited impact, indeed the issue of declining wellbeing amongst this group is escalating.

Studies from the business literature suggest that organisations that foster a playful environment reap benefits in terms of employee wellbeing.

This Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study explored the playful experiences amongst undergraduate students from Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health Professions programmes in the clinical practice setting. The resultant findings offer some unique empirical insights into the types of play that the students engaged in, the facilitative and limiting factors of play, and how the enactment of play contributes to improved PWB. These insights contribute to the limited body of knowledge about play in the healthcare organisational context.

Keywords:

Play, psychological wellbeing, undergraduate students.