Resilience and mental health nursing: An integrative review of updated evidence

Abstract

Mental health nursing work is challenging, and workplace stress can have negative impacts on nurses' well‐being and practice. Resilience is a dynamic process of positive adaptation and recovery from adversity. The aims of this integrative review were to examine and update understandings and perspectives on resilience in mental health nursing research, and to explore and synthesize the state of empirical knowledge on mental health nurse resilience. This is an update of evidence from a previous review published in 2019. Using integrative review methodology, 15 articles were identified from a systematic search (July 2018–June 2022). Data were extracted, analysed with constant comparison method, synthesized narratively and then compared with the findings from the original review. As an update of evidence, mental health nurse resilience was moderate to high across studies, was positively associated with psychological well‐being, post‐traumatic growth, compassion satisfaction and negatively associated with burnout, mental distress and emotional labour. Lack of support and resources from organizations could negatively impact nurses' ability to maintain resilience and manage workplace challenges through internal self‐regulatory processes. A resilience programme improved mental health nurses' awareness of personal resilience levels, self‐confidence, capacity to develop coping skills and professional relationships. Some studies continue to lack contemporary conceptualizations of resilience, and methodological quality varied from high to low. Further qualitative and interventional research is needed to investigate the role of resilience in mental health nursing practice, personal well‐being, workforce sustainability and the ongoing impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Well‐being, turnover intention, and stigma attitudes of mental health transition‐to‐practice nurses: A cross‐sectional study

“…There are no directly comparable transition findings in mental health nursing, but these findings are also somewhat consistent with general graduate transition programs in nursing; however, the prevalence of well-being and resilience of graduates in the review of transition programs by Jarden, Jarden, Weiland, Taylor, Bujalka, et al (2021) (using different measures) was reported as high (rather than moderate). We also found moderate positive associations between well-being and resilience, which is generally consistent with review findings on mental health nurses' well-being and resilience across studies (Bui et al, 2023), and with those of Delgado et al (2021) although they reported strong positive associations. The weak negative association between well-being and turnover intention is broadly consistent with the wider transition literature (Jarden, Jarden, Weiland, Taylor, Bujalka, et al, 2021) but not previously reported in mental health nursing literature and warrants further investigation.…”

“…There was overall moderate well-being and resilience across this group of transition nurses. The finding on resilience is generally consistent with scores reported across studies in mental health nursing, which were moderate-high (Bui et al, 2023).…”

“…There was overall moderate well‐being and resilience across this group of transition nurses. The finding on resilience is generally consistent with scores reported across studies in mental health nursing, which were moderate‐high (Bui et al., 2023). There are no directly comparable transition findings in mental health nursing, but these findings are also somewhat consistent with general graduate transition programs in nursing; however, the prevalence of well‐being and resilience of graduates in the review of transition programs by Jarden, Jarden, Weiland, Taylor, Bujalka, et al.…”

“…Resilient nurses can respond to stressful or adverse situations while maintaining their sense of self and ability to emotionally regulate, which leads to restoration of their psychological well‐being (Delgado et al., 2019; Foster et al., 2019). International review findings indicate that MHNs report moderate–high levels of resilience, with resilience positively associated with self‐esteem, coping strategies and work and life satisfaction, and negatively associated with depression, stress, and burnout (Bui et al., 2023; Foster et al., 2019). Little, however, is known about mental health transition nurses' well‐being and resilience.…”

Mental health nurses' experience of resilience during COVID‐19: A qualitative inquiry

“…Qualitative findings suggest that nurses from many different clinical settings regularly engage in self‐regulation (such as creating emotional barriers or professional boundaries) using available resources (personal or workplace social supports) to maintain their resilience and manage workplace stress (Cooper et al, 2021). In the specialty field of mental health nursing, there is a growing body of evidence on resilience, but limited qualitative studies and none during COVID‐19 (Bui et al, 2023; Foster et al, 2019). Most recently, Delgado et al (2022) investigated the resilient processes MHNs drew on when engaging in emotional labour in their work.…”