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Promoting Resilience in Nursing

Decent Essays

Promoting Resilience Resilience is defined as a person’s ability to weather adversity and come out of it with a stronger ability to deal with the next challenge (Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, n.d.). Resilience can be noted as a trait within an individual as well as a process through which a person undergoes during adversity (Jacelon, 1997). Measuring resilience can be done by assessing certain qualities within an individual and asking questions to elicit better understanding of their current psychological state (Wagnild & Collins, 2009). Nurses must have a thorough comprehension of resilience and how to measure and promote this among individuals who are met with health challenges. By doing this nurses are better able to provide holistic client centred care and inform the nursing profession.
Defining Resilience
Resilience is a term that is often applied to those who have faced hardship and viewed the experience in a positive light as an opportunity to grow and change for the better (Wagnild & Collins, 2009). The definition however seems to vary from place to place. Ungar et al. (2008) stated “definitions of resilience are ambiguous when viewed across cultures" (p.174) which is why the understanding of resilience may be difficult to capture (as cited in Windle, Bennett & Noyes, 2011). Although the literature agrees on several common themes about resilience there are many varying opinions on how to define the concept or the attributing factors. Earvolino-Ramirez (2007) and

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