From coping to building nurse manager resilience in rural workplaces in western Canada

To investigate the role stressors, and how coping strategies cultivated nurse managers' resilience in rural workplaces.

A stressful workplace can impair the mental and physical health of nurse managers leading to poor performance. Building and sustaining manager resilience in complex and stressful practice environments is necessary to attract and maintain competent and skilled managers.

In this qualitative exploratory inquiry, a purposive sampling method was used to recruit 16 nurse managers in rural western Canada.

Coping strategies fostered manager's resilience that made their work meaningful, and included putting out fires, psychologically reframing a situation, serving others and receiving support.

Managers brought expertise, knowledge and skill to make their work meaningful and central to ongoing health service delivery in these rural communities. Nurse manager resilience can be strengthened by using evidence-based strategies in an increasingly complex health care environment.

Managers need to be supported and encouraged to develop awareness of their own protective factors as they cope with challenging situations. Building resilience through formal education, social support and meaningful recognition is an important focus for nurse leaders in establishing a healthy work environment and maintaining a stable nursing workforce.