Exploring Individual and Team Resilience Among Dutch Hospital Nurses: A Survey Study

Nurses confront substantial daily workloads. Coping mechanisms, including resilient behaviours at both individual and team levels, are pivotal in managing these challenges. Factors like work experience can significantly influence individual resilience. Yet, team resilience among nurses remains relatively unexplored.

Our study examined perceptions of both individual and team resilience among Dutch hospital nurses. Furthermore, we investigated the impacts of hospital type, ward type and work experience.

The Employee Resilience Scale was used to evaluate individual resilience and adapted for team contexts to assess team resilience. This study was one of three conducted under a governmental research program aimed at improving patient safety in the Netherlands. A paired t-test and correlation analysis were conducted to compare individual resilience with team resilience. A separate t-test assessed the impact of ward type on perceived individual and team resilience. Finally, post hoc analyses were used to examine the effects of hospital type and work experience.

In total, 344 nurses from 25 different wards of 17 Dutch hospitals completed the survey. In general, nurses indicated to act more resilient on the individual level (mean = 3.77, SD = 0.61) compared to the team level (mean = 3.53, SD = 0.65; t = 7.25, p = 0.00). A correlation was found between perceived individual and team resilience (r = 0.53, p = 0.00). No effects of hospital- and ward type were found on both individual or team resilience. Years of work experience did not affect individual resilience but showed a significant effect on team resilience.

Dutch hospital nurses indicated they often act resilient on both individual and team levels. However, with increasing workloads in healthcare, being able to remain resilient will become increasingly challenging and important. Organisations should therefore support employees to maintain resilience by adapting their work environment to meet more employees' needs.