Resilience in professional nurses

Abstract

Research on human resilience has attempted to uncover how certain individuals, even when faced with adverse working conditions can bounce back without serious psychological harm and continue their development. There is a paucity of information on the concept resilience as it pertains to professional nurses. Relevant information in this regard can equip nurses who are fleeing the profession, or who are becoming physically or mentally ill because they are not coping. Information on the prevalence of resilience in professional nurses and a better understanding of the coping skills and resilient adaptations of identified resilient professional nurses can lead to the formulation of guidelines with strategies for interventions that can facilitate growth in professional nurses and be of benefit to the health care service. This research investigated the prevalence of resilience in professional nurses and listened to the stories of identified resilient professional nurses in order to get a better understanding of their coping skills and resilient adaptations. The data was used to formulate broad guidelines with specific strategies that can be used by hospital managers for in-service training purposes and other programs to facilitate growth in professional nurses. The research was conducted in South Africa amongst nurses in private and public hospitals in the following suburban areas: Potchefstroom, Carletonvi1le, Randfontein and Krugersdorp. A sequential exploratory design was used where one phase is followed by another phase: the first phase was quantitative research conducted with validated psychometric instruments measuring aspects of resilience, namely: The Mental Health Continuum, The Coping Self-efficacy Scale, Sense of Coherence Scale, The Adult Dispositional Hope Scale. The Life Orientation Test-Revised, The Resilience Scale, and The General Health Questionnaire. The second phase was qualitative and explored the stories of the resilient professional nurses by requesting them to write their stories on how they manage to stay resilient and compassionate in the profession followed by focus group interviews also with resilient nurses. The prevalence of resilience in the professional nurses in the first phase indicated the following: 10% with low resilience, 47% as moderate and 43 % with high resilience, but with mostly negative feelings toward the profession and with many considering leaving their current job. The stories followed by focus group interviews with resilient professional nurses produced useful data that could be used to formulate guidelines with strategies for interventions to facilitate and enhance resilience and psycho-social well-being in professional nurses thereby improving the nursing profession and health care service overall.