Cultivating a Culture of Resilience

Resilience is a concept that has been applied to research and practice in nearly every possible area of life and academia- from science to sociology, psychology, nursing and medicine. Given the high degree of stress in today’s society, nursing has become a focus for studies and interventions that foster resilience in the workplace. Investigators such as Jackson, Firthko, and Edenborough (2007) McDermid (2016) and others have taken the approach that resilience can be learned or developed once the characteristics that exemplify resilience are identified. Active participation of nurses through mentorship workshops for critical thinking and building hardiness aids in the development and strengthening of personal resilience (Jackson et al 2007 and Hart et al 2012).

Nursing management can facilitate resilience in the workplace through strategies that create work- life balance, assist in critical refection to problem solve and build resolutions to help guide in future situations, and use a shared or professional governance as a nursing care model (Garcia-Dia & O’Flaherty, 2016). Nurse leaders that empower and encourage their staff to develop supportive relationships, provide a positive and optimistic work environment and communicate the importance of quality of life for their team members will also see the benefit of work force retention or decreased staff turnover. This is a key factor in maintaining and staying compliant with the increasing demand to strive for quality and decrease associated turnover and recruitment cost.

Now more than ever, with recent traumatic events associated with gun violence, and terrorism nurses are in the frontline taking care of victims and families, and at the same time dealing with their own personal vulnerabilities. This proposed presentation would explore mobile app interventions that promote mindfulness and healthy engagement in conjunction with debriefing and journaling activities in order to cultivate nurses’ own resilience in the workplace. Additionally this presentation will facilitate methods for assessing one’s own resilience and methods to cope positively, personally and professionally.

 By the end of this presentation the participants will be able to identify leadership strategies and initiatives that lead to developing resilience in nursing staff.Additionally participants will be able to identify the significance of the leaders role in sustaining a work environment that fosters staff engagement, satisfaction, quality and retention.