A National Survey of Nursing Faculty Resilience, Moral Courage, and Purpose

Abstract

Background: High rates of nursing faculty burnout and moral distress fuel faculty attrition, which directly affects our ability to educate new nurses. This study investigated the relationships among resilience, moral courage, and purpose to inform strategies to promote well-being in nursing faculty. Method: A descriptive, correlational study was conducted using a convenience sample of nursing faculty in the United States and Canada ( n = 690). Participants completed three surveys: the Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the Moral Courage Scale for Nursing Faculty (MCNF), and the Meaning of Life Questionnaire (MSQ), as well as a single open-ended question. Results: Moral courage was moderately correlated to resilience, and the Meaning of Life Presence subscale was moderately correlated to resilience. Meaning of life presence and meaning of life search were moderately negatively correlated. Conclusion: Resilience, moral courage, and purpose are essential in promoting professional fulfillment and personal well-being in nursing faculty. [ J Nurs Educ . 2023;62(7):381–386.]

Development and initial validation of the Mount Sinai Resilience Scale.

“…Considering the broad literature on flexibility (e.g., Galatzer-Levy et al, 2012;Sardella et al, 2021), we created separate item sets for cognitive and emotional flexibility, respectively. Brain fitness (e.g., curiosity) and having a moral compass, respectively, have been subject to less research (Nichter et al, 2020;Stephens & Layne, 2023) though often emerge in personal narratives of resilient people (Southwick et al, 2023). We then developed three items for each of these 12 domains.…”