The Resilient Nurse

"This book is of value to nurses at all levels of their career."--Critical Care Nurse "This is a very practical and easy to read book with many strategies to help new nurses adapt to the stressors of the workplace. It is filled with thought-provoking stories and activities that can foster confidence in tackling workplace issues as well as self-care activities to enhance wholeness and wellbeing. Some suggested strategies for successful outcomes include finding a good mentor, relaxation techniques, using humor, self-reflection, and exercising. There is something in this book for everyone."Score: 96, 4 stars. --Doody's Medical Reviews This essential resource is for nursing and allied health students across the globe who are undertaking-or are about to undertake-their internship and initial work experience. This reference identifies practical strategies for career advancement and for overcoming stressors and challenges in the workplace. With the tools from this book, readers will be able to gain the strength and tactics to break the cycles of hostility and workplace negativity, and thereby change the health system and provide better care for their clients. Key Features: Presents primary narratives and resilience strategies Provides creative resolutions for coping with complex clients, grief, inter-professional tensions, and more difficult issues Contains reader activities that encourage students to become agents of change Highlights resilience strategies; key coping mechanisms; lessons learned; discussion questions; creative thinking exercises; and teacher-related activities

The nursing profession is under pressure. Financial demands, student debt, the target culture, political scrutiny in the wake of major care scandals and increasing workloads are all taking their toll on professional morale and performance. This timely book considers the meaning of resilience in this adverse context and explains why measures to preserve individual nurses’ and students’ well-being are flawed if they don’t take into account wider political and organizational perspectives. Arguing that healthcare can be thought about and experienced differently, this book: provides a summary of the latest research on resilience, explaining its relevance and also limitations for nurses; considers debates about compassion and highlights the effects of policy agendas on nurse education and nursing work; re-evaluates nursing’s professional identity, including where nursing has come from and the effects of class, gender and race on its powerbase; assesses the role of politics and social media, both in driving change and feeding resistance; and introduces the idea of critical resilience as a complete framework for resisting bullying and fostering survival and change in the nursing workforce. Direct, upbeat, at times provocative and witty, this agenda-setting book enables nurses to understand why they feel the way they do. It also lists what opportunities are available to them to change, resist and survive in what has become a complex, challenging – if still deeply rewarding – line of work.

Preceded by Resilient nurse / Margaret McAllister, John B. Lowe, editors. c2011.

As nurses, we all experience circumstances that are beyond our control. We feel overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious. But with holistic and comprehensive resilience tools, we can find ways to overcome adversity and maintain a sustainable, healthy balance. Using a framework inspired by George Everly Jr., Dr. Douglas Strouse, and Dr. Dennis K. McCormack, The Resilient Nurse Project employs six pillars of resilience in coaching nurses to recognize, address, and overcome burnout and compassion fatigue. These pillars allow nurses to manage and cope with conflicts, view their challenges strategically, and develop a positive way forward. The Resilient Nurse Book uses each pillar of resilience as a lens to view the personal stories of nurses who demonstrate strength through adversity. Through these tales, readers can learn how to employ valuable resilience techniques and reduce the uncontrollable spiral that might otherwise result from life's curveballs. In a world of endless responsibilities and high-stress employment, these tools are critical to managing opposing priorities and overcoming the all-too-common trend of putting oneself last. How can you truly care for others when you don't first care for yourself? In the pages of this book, you'll learn about: the importance of community how to give your brain space to process trauma the holistic nature of caring for human beings how to actively build optimism creative ways to improve the healthcare system Avoid professional burnout as a nurse by following these strategies, so you can become your best self at work and at home!

They're strong. They're persistent. They're resilient. They're exceptional nurses. Read the true, inspiring stories of nurses with disabilities who overcame significant odds-managing physical and mental challenges on the job-and continued to be a nurse through it all.You'll read of a nurse who has a learning disability and developed his own system of accommodation. You'll find out about a nurse who experienced an amputation after many conservation surgeries and found a way to keep working. You'll learn about a nurse who worked through a terrifying hurricane and developed mental illness, and learned important lessons about herself to help her conquer it, and continue being a nurse. You'll hear the stories of what it's like to lose hearing while on the job as well as develop vision deficits while nursing.In all these stories, the nurses' resilience is what helped them pull through adverse situations, made them stronger and more effective nurses in the end.Also included is practical information on how to navigate the vocational rehabilitation system including a guide to requesting services, a sample accommodation request letter to share with an employer, as well as information on how to best disclose a psychiatric disability.Whether you're a nurse or a student with a disability or you care about a nurse with a disability, this book will leave you inspired and prepared to be an exceptional nurse yourself.

Praise for the First Edition: “This is a very practical and easy to read book with many strategies to help new nurses adapt to the stressors of the workplace. It is filled with thought-provoking stories and activities that can foster confidence in tackling workplace issues as well as self-care activities to enhance wholeness and well-being....There is something in this book for everyone.” Score: 96, 4 stars. —DOODY’S MEDICAL REVIEWS This unique resource will help nurses overcome stressors and challenges when—and even before— they arise. Featuring seven new chapters and a multitude of new authors, the second edition reflects the latest research on resilience and well-being and applies it specifically to nursing professionals. The book describes a diverse range of proactive and preventive approaches nurses can harness in a variety of healthcare contexts. These strategies help develop strength, flexibility, and the determination to adapt to professional challenges that may at first seem daunting. Strategies are presented to conquer self-defeating thoughts, connect with positive peers, and emulate positive leadership attributes. Chapters present first-hand accounts of “resilience in action” and extensive examples that showcase evidence-based resilience strategies, along with discussion questions, creative thinking exercises, and application activities. New to the Second Edition: Strategies for adapting to constant change Managing moral and ethical distress Developing effective and creative solutions for global health challenges Restoring resilience, health, and well-being after adversity New leadership dynamics Moving out of one’s comfort zone for personal and professional growth Key Features: Includes activities that encourage readers to develop resilience capabilities as team leaders, team members, and change agents Highlights psychological and social resilience strategies Includes discussion questions and creative thinking exercises Supplemental instructor’s manual and PowerPoints included

Turn adversity from fearsome foe to welcome friend. Ordinary resilience is not enough to inspire teams to greatness. Effective leaders must welcome adversity and harness it for positive change that creates results. Bounce forward from adversity to lead a successful learning organization that can face new challenges and build for the future. Drawing on experiences as a transformational leadership coach, the author helps readers by: Defining leadership resiliency Explaining how leadership resiliency applies in educational leadership Showing you how to find it in yourself Outlining steps to make your leadership resilience visible Providing a rubric to gauge the resiliency of your organization

Suffering is an unavoidable reality in health care. Not only are patients and families suffering but also the clinicians who care for them. Commonly the suffering experienced by clinicians is moral in nature, in part a reflection of the increasing complexity of health care, their roles within it, and the expanding range of available interventions. Moral suffering is the anguish that occurs when the burdens of treatment appear to outweigh the benefits; scarce human and material resources must be allocated; informed consent is incomplete or inadequate; or there are disagreements about goals of treatment among patients, families or clinicians. Each is a source of moral adversity that challenges clinicians' integrity: the inner harmony that arises when their essential values and commitments are aligned with their choices and actions. If moral suffering is unrelieved it can lead to disengagement, burnout, and undermine the quality of clinical care. The most studied response to moral adversity is moral distress. The sources and sequelae of moral distress, one type of moral suffering, have been documented among clinicians across specialties. It is vital to shift the focus to solutions and to expanded individual and system strategies that mitigate the detrimental effects of moral suffering. Moral resilience, the capacity of an individual to restore or sustain integrity in response to moral adversity, offers a path forward. It encompasses capacities aimed at developing self-regulation and self-awareness, buoyancy, moral efficacy, self-stewardship and ultimately personal and relational integrity. Clinicians and healthcare organizations must work together to transform moral suffering by cultivating the individual capacities for moral resilience and designing a new architecture to support ethical practice. Used worldwide for scalable and sustainable change, the Conscious Full Spectrum approach, offers a method to solve problems to support integrity, shift patterns that undermine moral resilience and ethical practice, and source the inner potential of clinicians and leaders to produce meaningful and sustainable results that benefit all.