Resilience: is it time for a rethink?

Abstract

We often associate resilience with burnout and link this with an intention to leave in the nursing and midwifery profession. Some believe that nursing and midwifery students are not resilient and that this impacts the development of coping strategies which might be adopted to manage burnout. Students themselves describe their studies as stressful and many report high levels of anxiety. This can impact on the rate of course attrition and the health and wellbeing of students. Higher education providers are exploring ways of embedding wellbeing strategies which they hope will impact resilience, which will then help these students practice in challenging situations. In addition to considering the ways we teach and assist students, there is a growing focus on improving work cultures that move from individual notions of resilience towards the development of resilient workplaces, allowing nurses and midwives to flourish.