Modulating Elements of Nurse Resilience in Population Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 has significantly affected the work environment of nurses. In the face of the challenges posed by stressors in clinical practice, some nurses adapt and prove to be resilient. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nature of care itself and the new ways of working are potentially very stressful. We aim to analyze the resilience of care nurses to the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is a systematic review of nurse caregiver resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Our search was conducted in the WOS, Medline/PubMed, Cochrane, BVS/LILACS, and Cuiden databases. The inclusion criteria were: studies published in Spanish or English; carried out from March 2020 to May 2021 on nurses caring for patients with COVID-19; and investigating the factors influencing the psychological impact, resilience, strategies to develop it, and interventions to promote it during this pandemic and others, such as SARS, MERS, or ebola. The quality of the studies and the risk of bias were evaluated following ICROMS, STROBE and AMSTAR-2 criteria. Twenty-two studies were selected. Most of the studies highlighted the presence of stressors in nurses, emphasizing those of the environment, which converged in dysfunctional responses that hurt their resilience. The most persuasive factors were social and organizational support. Coping strategies developed by nurses and especially interventions by organizations were detected as instruments to foster resilience, but have not been well researched. Resilience has a key moderating role in mitigating the psychological impact of nurses in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Out of Chaos Leaders Emerged

“… 9 Research has indicated that nurses tended to adopt positive strategies in the face of the psychological impact of the pandemic. 23 This is in support with what Bonano 24 in 2004 suggested, namely that understanding what you are doing, having a meaningful purpose and a strong belief system helped people become more resilient in stressful situations. 25 “ Showing stubborn hope ,” 26 moral courage, stamina and resilience, nurses continued to work on the front lines of the pandemic, once again holding the historic center of the recognition, prevention, care and control of infectious diseases from the time of Florence Nightingale.…”

Comparison of Resilience Among Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemics: A Multinational Cross-Sectional Survey in Southeast Asian Jurisdictions

“…Salary and benefit packages were found to be one of crucial provisions of organization support that made employees feel trusted and valued in the workplace [ 27 ]. Our findings provide a novel insight that healthcare system policies and organizational support could constitute efficient measures/instruments to foster resilience of HCWs during the pandemic [ 28 , 29 ]. Resilience is not solely an individual responsibility, but rather a mutual responsibility between the individual and the organization.…”

Leadership and Resilience: Where Should We Go Next?

“…Certain fields such as medicine, nursing, and the military have led the way in work‐related resilience research. Studies of resilience among nurses are consistently being produced (Lee & De Gagne, 2022; Sierra‐García et al, 2022; Sihvola et al, 2022). Studies related to resilience in military personnel are also regularly seen in the literature (Doody et al, 2022; Millstein et al, 2022).…”