TY - BOOK

T1 - What is resilience in hospice inpatient nursing?

T2 - A participatory action research study

AU - Powell, Martin

PY - 2020/9/25

Y1 - 2020/9/25

N2 - Background: The palliative care nursing workforce is depleted and faces increased demands due to an ageing population likely to be living longer with life-limiting conditions. Resilience is often suggested as necessary to enable nurses to tolerate rising levels of stress yet is often poorly defined and understood. Assumptions that resilience is the responsibility of individual nurses are challenged.Aim: To explore resilience from the perspective of hospice nurses; understand what individual, interpersonal and organisational factors influence resilience; develop strategies for enhancing resilience in hospice inpatient palliative care nursing; and to review and evaluate such strategies.Methods: Participatory Action Research (PAR) was used to identify the nature ofadversity in inpatient palliative care nursing and develop strategies, designed bynurses themselves, to enhance resilience. Phase one involved semi-structuredinterviews with 7 registered nurses and phase two included twelve, monthlymeetings of a Collaborative Inquiry Group, who engaged in a process of planning,acting and reflecting on the key issues identified in phase one.Findings: Resilience in inpatient palliative care nursing is preceded by the followingadversities: being affected by certain patients, feeling kept in the dark, and whenteamwork is sub-optimal. Resilience occurs when nurses make meaning fromadverse experiences in ways that prepare them for future occurrences. Meaning making involves certain mindsets, team support and cohesion, and the ability to develop a coherent narrative about experiences. It is possible for nurses to innovate, generate and implement strategies to enhance resilience without relying on typically used interventions such as mindfulness, relaxation, CBT or other techniques that lay responsibility to tolerate inordinate stressors on the individual nurse.Conclusion: There are particular adversities encountered by the inpatient palliative care nursing workforce that influence resilience. Given the opportunity, nurses themselves can identify, develop and test strategies that may enhance resilience in their workplace.

AB - Background: The palliative care nursing workforce is depleted and faces increased demands due to an ageing population likely to be living longer with life-limiting conditions. Resilience is often suggested as necessary to enable nurses to tolerate rising levels of stress yet is often poorly defined and understood. Assumptions that resilience is the responsibility of individual nurses are challenged.Aim: To explore resilience from the perspective of hospice nurses; understand what individual, interpersonal and organisational factors influence resilience; develop strategies for enhancing resilience in hospice inpatient palliative care nursing; and to review and evaluate such strategies.Methods: Participatory Action Research (PAR) was used to identify the nature ofadversity in inpatient palliative care nursing and develop strategies, designed bynurses themselves, to enhance resilience. Phase one involved semi-structuredinterviews with 7 registered nurses and phase two included twelve, monthlymeetings of a Collaborative Inquiry Group, who engaged in a process of planning,acting and reflecting on the key issues identified in phase one.Findings: Resilience in inpatient palliative care nursing is preceded by the followingadversities: being affected by certain patients, feeling kept in the dark, and whenteamwork is sub-optimal. Resilience occurs when nurses make meaning fromadverse experiences in ways that prepare them for future occurrences. Meaning making involves certain mindsets, team support and cohesion, and the ability to develop a coherent narrative about experiences. It is possible for nurses to innovate, generate and implement strategies to enhance resilience without relying on typically used interventions such as mindfulness, relaxation, CBT or other techniques that lay responsibility to tolerate inordinate stressors on the individual nurse.Conclusion: There are particular adversities encountered by the inpatient palliative care nursing workforce that influence resilience. Given the opportunity, nurses themselves can identify, develop and test strategies that may enhance resilience in their workplace.

KW - Health services research; hospice and palliative care nursing; resilience, psychological; stress, psychological,

U2 - 10.17635/lancaster/thesis/1099

DO - 10.17635/lancaster/thesis/1099

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

PB - Lancaster University

ER -