More than resilience

FigureWhen you think about the term resilience, what comes to mind? I imagine a tree in a windstorm—bending, but unbroken. The term resilience comes up often in our profession. I frequently hear it mentioned during nursing education events aimed at helping nurses cope with the demands of the job. So, what does it mean to be resilient? Essentially, it's the tendency to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.1 While researching this topic I visited the American Association of Colleges of Nursing website and ran across a link to a documentary titled 5B.2 I had never had the opportunity to watch the documentary. So, I took the time. The setting is a unit that was developed during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The documentary illustrates the fear and isolation that healthcare workers, their patients, and the community felt during those early days. The HIV/AIDS epidemic, of course, didn't transpire exactly as the COVID-19 pandemic did, but the fear, isolation, compassion fatigue, and death felt similar. Building resilience in nurses and other healthcare workers can be a protective factor against negative outcomes related to the job, including burnout, anxiety, and depression, and can improve patient outcomes.”2 I recently was on a conference call during which someone stated, “I swear if someone says one more time that nurses need to be more resilient, I am going to scream!” I immediately understood what they meant, with some exceptions: The way to fix what's broken isn't to get tougher and learn to adjust. That simply enables the issues to persist. I agree, however, that breaking under pressure also means that there's no opportunity to fix what's broken. At the same time, not everything that requires us to be resilient is because something is broken. It's about balance. Understanding what prolonged stress and fatigue are and how to combat them so that you, as a professional, can be stronger and more effective at self-preservation and problem reconciliation is key. Healthcare is hard. Every day it's hard. So how can nurses become more resilient to the trials that rage around us? The staffing problems, supply and demand concerns, financial constraints, cultural inequities, workplace violence, and safety fears. The list goes on, but the point is figuring out how to remain intact as humans who are caring for humans. How do we maintain our sense of self and purpose? I encourage you to take the time to look inside this issue to learn more. Do you consider yourself to be resilient? Think about what you have in common with your mentors and your coworkers and consider what they may struggle with. Do you think of them as resilient? What qualities do you see or not see in yourself? Asking these questions is critical to defining resiliency for ourselves.Figure