The stories of resilience in a group of professional nurses in South Africa

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify resilient characteristics, strengths, and other protective factors in professional nurses by means of validated questionnaires measuring aspects of resilience, as well as written narratives and focus group discussions from resilient nurses. Professional nurses (N = 312) completed validated questionnaires and were identified as resilient (N = 133) based on their scores. From these, 35 resilient professional nurses participated voluntarily and wrote their narratives on how they manage to stay resilient and compassionate in the profession. Thereafter, six focus group interviews were conducted with a group of resilient nurses (N = 32) at public and private facilities. Rich data on resilience in professional nurses were obtained, and consequently resilience as an enabling factor emerged. Resilience in these participants seemed to flow from—and be nurtured by—everyday resources in their lives, such as daily activities, family life, and cultural aspects. Resilience was also the outcome of reciprocal, dynamic, and context-bound interaction between the nurses and their environments, both in the nursing workplace and also in their personal lives. Human resilience is understood as a foundation, or building block, of well-being in people, and refers to the unexpected ability of humans to muster up adaptive strengths and behavioural competencies when facing serious life challenges or adversities (Bonanno, 2004; Masten, 2001). Ryff and Singer (2003) emphasized the ability of individuals to maintain, recover, or improve their healthy mental and physical functioning under adversity or difficult circumstances, and this conceptualization of resilience makes it particularly well suited when trying to understand and explore the surprisingly high levels of functioning of professional nurses who work under demanding circumstances in South Africa.