Shaf Ahmed

Background: The wellbeing of college students today is at risk because of rising occurrences of mental health issues in higher education. Concurrently, undergraduate students perceive engineering courses and programs to be among the most arduous, and least welcoming and accommodating, in higher education. Although research related to mental health and wellbeing (MHW) in engineering is growing, a systematic review of this research has yet to be conducted.Purpose: This systematic literature review identifies and synthesizes empirical scholarship related to the MHW of undergraduate engineering students.Scope/Method: Specified search terms and inclusion criteria were used to identify 34 empirical studies related to engineering undergraduates' MHW. Content and qualitative thematic analyses were conducted to characterize and synthesize trends in research quality and outcomes across studies.Results: Undergraduate engineering students experience a variety of mental health issues that negatively affect their experiences in engineering education. Stress is the most prevalent mental health issue identified; anxiety, depression, and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are also reported. Heavy academic workloads, sleep issues, and the nature of engineering education culture are identified as impediments to MHW in engineering education.Conclusions: Although MHW in engineering is a growing area of research internationally, current MHW research in engineering is nascent and focused on the characterization of student mental health issues. Researchers underutilize qualitative and mixed‐methods approaches, longitudinal and experimental designs, guiding frameworks, and robust sampling techniques. Academic and mindfulness interventions, as well as the use of mental wellness constructs from positive psychology, show promise for supporting MHW in engineering.

Objective: To explore the unmet psychosocial needs, coping styles and psychological distress among people ith cancer in Pakistan. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational study design was used for data collection. The research was conducted in Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad and Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar with a sample of 182 participants diagnosed with cancer. Only those who consented to participate were approached from May to July, 2017. Supportive Care Needs Survey-Short Form 34 (SCNS-SF34), Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (Mini-Macs) and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) were used for data collection. Results: It was found that all psychosocial needs were unmet among all the participants (100%) who were suffering from cancer illness. Among five sub-domains of psychosocial needs, health information needs (35.61%) and psychological needs (30.7%) emerged to be strikingly unmet. Moreover, anxious preoccupation and hopeless/helplessness were highly endorsed maladaptive coping styles. A statistically significant relationship existed among unmet psycho-social needs, maladaptive coping and psychological distress. Conclusion: This Study outcome pointed towards gaps in delivering quality care services in Pakistani healthcare settings, inadequate attention of health professionals and serious psychological health care neglect of patients fighting with life threatening disease. This negligence may jeopardize patient’s overall health, can raise health care costs and consequently can contribute to elevated psychological distress. Hence, there is a dire need for proper psychological interventions for effective and holistic treatment planning which can improve the whole process of illness and recovery. Keywords: Cancer, Psychosocial support system, Continuous...