Ready or not…here we grow! Evaluating the competency of nursing faculty in supporting nursing student mental health: A quantitative investigation.

Background: College students are amid a mental health crisis with campuses seeing the highest rates of mental health disorders in over a decade. College nursing students stand out as particularly affected, experiencing elevated levels of anxiety, stress, and depression compared to the general student population. At the forefront of addressing this issue are college faculty, especially nursing faculty, who play a unique role in identifying and referring students with mental health needs due to their close interactions in smaller teaching-learning settings such as clinicals, simulations, and one-on-one validations.