Resilience In Nursing

Many people have aspirations of becoming a nurse; however, most do not take into consideration the difficulty and hard work, mentally and physically, that comes along with being a health care worker. The book Resilient Nurse: Empowering Your Practice explains the expectations of today’s nurses stating, for one states that “As a 21st-century nursing graduate, it is likely that your expectations and needs as a worker differ from those of previous generations” (McAllister and Lowe 3). In other words, being a health care worker is an erratic career path, and one needs to be aware of and prepared for unpredictable situations. If not readily prepared, the consequences tend to include stress, conflict, burnout, and poor care (McAllister and Lowe

The most dominant characteristic overall that being a nurse requires is resilience. Nurses must resist the symptoms of stress and be able to quickly recover from difficult situations. A study in the book Support for Caring and Resiliency Among Successful Nurse Leaders, supports the practice of self-care, responsibility, and reflection to increase resilience (Dyess, Prestia, and Smith 108-110). Self-care involves attending to self-cues by listening to the body to maintain balance. For instance, having a job in the health department can seem never-ending, and as a result pushes clinicians to continue working until the job is finished, despite how tired and possibly burnt out he or she is. This method neglects attention to the clinician’s physical and emotional health. Instead, one should establish boundaries, such as knowing when to take a break from work and when to go home and rest (Dyess, Prestia, and Smith 109-110). Self-care also includes involvement outside the workforce, such as relationships with friends and family, spiritual health, and having relaxation (McAllister and Lowe 117-127). Following self-care, though equally as important, is

Because of this, leadership is an important quality to have as a nurse. Leadership sets the tone of trustworthiness and positivity to others around. In the book Transformational Leadership Skills of Successful Nurse Managers, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge, studied groups of nurses to evaluate specific behaviors that demonstrate leadership. These men found three practices that most health care workers possess. First, workers must model professional behaviors and communication skills to exemplify what is expected on a daily basis in the work place (Heuston and 250). Second, challenging those in training in order to better them in the future is highly important for their professional development as individuals. For example, letting trainees take action in procedures and giving them permission to try their own ideas allows them to make mistakes and grow from them (Heuston and Wolf 250). Prohibiting nurses in training to address a situation themselves and make mistakes inhibits their learning experience and therefor they will never learn. Lastly, nurse leaders must use personal recognition and communication in order to form personal connections to encourage others. (Heuston and Wolf 250). One nurse leader uses a process called “fishing for facts” with all new hires. This involves learning personal