Resilience-building Inquiry Among High Professional Profile Nurses: A Descriptive Qualitative Study

Abstract

Nurses experience stress and face adversities during their professional career, which is a leading cause of professional dropouts and nursing shortages around the globe. Resilience among nurses has an important role in overcoming adversities and facing professional challenges. Nurses learn to cope with adversities and develop resilience through professional experience. To explore the resilience-building process among high professional profile nurses working as clinical and educational experts in a semi-government institute. This study employed a descriptive qualitative design. It was conducted from January 2019 to July 2019 after the IRB approval. Purposive sampling was used to recruit study participants. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews until the data saturation point was reached. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was done to analyze the data. The process through which nurses develop resilience during their professional career took place in three main phases: challenges and stresses faced during their nursing career, coping process utilization, and capacity building. These phases are supported by motivation and professional commitment. The core theme was the resilience-building among nurses during their nursing careers. Pakistani nurses are managing those stresses that have been resolved in developed countries. There is less external motivation to work in nursing; rather, Pakistani nurses are motivating themselves through self-realization and self-motivation strategies. The important pillars of resilience-building are family support, toughening up, spirituality, self-motivation, and commitment. Resilience among novice nurses should be strengthened and developed through resilience-building interventions.
 Keywords: resilience-building, inquiry, high professional profile, nurses, exploratory, descriptive, qualitative study.