Exploring and explaining nurses’ resilience and developing strategies for its enhancement: an explanatory sequential mixed method study

The healthcare environment is considered a challenging and complex setting. Resilience is the individual’s ability to maintain psychological and biological balance in stressful conditions. Nurses with high resilience not only do not leave their jobs but also provide better care. The present study aimed to explore and explain the resilience of nurses and to present strategies for its enhancement. This study was a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study conducted at the Rajaie Cardiovascular Institute. Throughout the study, both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were utilized. In the quantitative phase, the average resilience score of 149 nurses was determined using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). SPSS software version 16 was used for quantitative data analysis, with a significance level of 0.05 considered in the tests. The quantitative results were used to identify nurses with the highest resilience scores, and in the qualitative method, these nurses were purposefully selected. To explain the experiences of nurses with the highest resilience scores, the qualitative phase was conducted using conventional content analysis. The results of the present study showed that most nurses (63.75%) had moderate to high resilience, while 36.25% had moderate to low resilience. Nurses’ resilience did not show a significant relationship with demographic characteristics (P > 0.05). Analyzing interviews with nurses regarding strategies for enhancing resilience led to the presentation of strategies categorized into four main categories and several subcategories. The main categories included positive thinking, healthy lifestyle, individual and social-organizational support, and strengthening cognitive problem-solving skills. Most nurses had moderate to high resilience. The results of this study indicated that the resilience of nurses is shaped by the interaction between positive thinking, a healthy lifestyle, individual and social-organizational support, and cognitive problem-solving skills.