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Nursing students experience academic pressure, and are exposed to many firsts in the clinical arena, including death and dying, diverse lifestyles, and communicable diseases in real time (Stephens, 2013). The student’s experiences are stressful as they apply new concepts and skills in a practice environment. This new role often necessitates that students reconsider personal beliefs and values (Stephens, 2013).
Resilience is an important concept to incorporate into educating nursing students. Whitmore and Knafl’s (2005) integrative approach was utilized to conduct a methodological review. The purpose of the review was to define and describe the concept of resilience in nursing students, identify factors that affect resilience in nursing students, and evaluate strategies to promote resilience in nursing students. Inclusion criteria for the literature were as follows: addressed one of the above statements, measured resilience in pre licensure nursing students, and was published between 1990 and 2014. Nine articles met inclusion criteria and were included in this review. Various definitions and descriptions of resilience in nursing students were synthesized. Factors that affect resilience were grouped into three themes: support, time, and empowerment. Strategies to promote resilience in nursing students were found in three of the nine articles, but their methods and findings were disparate. It is concluded that faculty could foster a student’s resilience through coaching, reframing experiences, and encouraging students to recall previous successes. Faculty guidance of the student into the role of professional nurse is crucial. Thus it is important to foster resilience in nursing students to prepare them for longevity in today’s healthcare system.