Resilience During Difficult Times in Health Care

During times of turbulence in US health care, organizations do all they can to decrease costs. Turbulent times also bring feelings of uncertainty to nurses, potentially causing unhealthy work environments. Nurses must remain resilient and learn how to cope with changes so they can focus on patient safety. Dyer and McGuinness¹  define resilience as the ability to “bounce back from adversity and go on with their lives.” They further describe the critical attributes for resilience to be rebounding and carrying on, a sense of self, determination, and a prosocial attitude.¹ 

Workplace adversity in nursing is associated with issues such as excessive workloads, lack of autonomy, bullying, and violence. This adversity is caused by (and not limited to) organizational restructuring, low retention rates, and labor cost reductions.²  Researchers have found that adversity associated with low retention rates can contribute to work environments that are hostile, abusive, and unrewarding....