Exploring Strategies to Build Resiliency in Nurses During Work Hours

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Traditional resilience-building activities are time-intensive and often occur outside of work hours.
• Previous research indicates positive impacts of these activities on resilience.
• This study explored the efficacy of interventions within the context of nurses' work-related stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of a toolkit of stress-reducing interventions in enhancing nurse resiliency.
• To determine if these interventions could mitigate work-related stress among nurses.
• To pilot a novel approach to resilience-building directly within the clinical setting.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental, pretest and posttest, within-subjects design was employed.
• Nurses on medical-surgical units at four hospitals participated.
• A toolkit with stress-reducing interventions and instructions was provided, with surveys administered at baseline, 10 time points over 6 weeks, and at study conclusion.

Main Results:

• Significant increases in Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 scores were observed post-intervention (P < .02).
• Nurses reported a decrease in self-assessed stress levels throughout the 10 observed shifts.
• Continued use of the interventions correlated with sustained improvements in stress reduction.

Conclusions:

• Implementing stress-reducing interventions during work hours is an effective strategy for enhancing nurse resiliency.
• These interventions demonstrably decrease perceived stress among nursing staff.
• Nurse leaders can utilize these findings to develop and implement programs promoting a healthier, more resilient nursing workforce at the bedside.