Resilience & Self-care Written Assignment

Cultivating Self-Care and a Sense of Resilience

Bay Path University

Cultivating Self-Care and a Sense of Resilience

In your role as a nurse practitioner, how can you cultivate self-care and a sense of resilience for yourself and members of your team?

Nurse experience stressful events from all corners. Because of the busy nurse working environment, most nurses are experiencing unhealthy work environments and are not engaging in self-care to build resilience and promote health and wellbeing (McNamara, 2019). Through resilience, an individual develops the ability to bounce back or cope effectively despite significant adversity. Therefore, by being resilient, a nurse practitioner would learn to overcome difficulties and develop better-coping strategies to address stress through exposure to difficult working circumstances and environments (Yılmaz, 2017). One of the key ways to build resilience is focusing on self-care, "Taking care of oneself." Self-care helps keep one's mind and body primed to deal with situations requiring resilience (Yılmaz, 2017). According to the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA), self-care involves participating in healthy activities and engaging in health-promoting behaviors to embrace a healthier lifestyle and enhance wellness (McNamara, 2019). Very resilient nurses take action to maintain their preparedness for situations. This paper focuses on describing how a nurse practitioner can cultivate self-care and a sense of resilience for oneself and team members.

Creating and maintaining a self-care strategy is just one of the critical strategies for promoting resilience for a sustainable career in nursing. Nurses who engage in self-care have the potential to serve as role models for positive social change for patients, families, and colleagues (McNamara, 2019). There are several ways nurse practitioners can cultivate self-care and a sense of resilience for themselves and other team members. For instance, taking good care of oneself and encouraging other team members to do the same is paramount to the success of the recovery process despite significant adversity, promoting a sense of resilience (Öksüz et al., 2019). Individuals in recovery find that their physical, spiritual, and emotional health are all connected, and supporting one supports the others. Taking care of all aspects of self-care will increase the body's likelihood of staying well.

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Additionally, to cultivate self-care in oneself and others, a nurse practitioner can consider living healthy, eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and avoiding drugs and alcohol. Nurses also need to manage stress and go for regular medical check-ups to stay fit. Moreover, nurse practitioners also need to practice good hygiene to improve the way others view them and how they view themselves (Blackburn et al., 2018). Again, nurse practitioners can also build self-care and resilience by seeing friends to build their sense of belonging. In this case, nurses can consider joining a support group to make new friends. Nurse practitioners can also try to do something they enjoy every day, such as dancing, watching a favorite TV show, working in the garden, painting, or reading. Nurses can also find ways to relax, such as meditation, yoga, getting a massage, taking a bath, or walking in the woods to cultivate a sense of self-care.

Further, nurse practitioners can strengthen their connections to cultivate a sense of resilience. By strengthening their connections, nurses understand the importance of incorporating joy, spirit, and relaxation into their lives and their implications for developing resiliency and staying healthy (Öksüz et al., 2019). The four Cs to joy, spirit, and relaxation imply that one must connect with self, connect with others, connect to the community, and create joy and satisfaction in oneself and other team members. In this case, nurse practitioners must try to push their comfort levels and do things they may not have done before overall (Barratt, 2018). The other strategy to cultivate a sense of resilience is to connect with the self. Here, one needs to check in with self periodically (Blackburn et al., 2018). Checking in with oneself allows one to assess where one is in the recovery process and readjust appropriately.

Moreover, nurses can build resilience by connecting with other team members and encouraging the team members to do the same. Evidence indicates that spending time with positive, loving people one cares about and trusts can ease stress, help with mood, and improve the way one feels overall (Barratt, 2018). These people may include family members, close friends, support group members, or a peer counselor. Moreover, evidence shows that self-care practices that emphasize physical, psychological, social, and spiritual wellbeing can cultivate or improve resilience in individuals (McNamara, 2019). Notably, caring, loving, and respecting oneself is just as significant as caring for other people and is necessary if the nurse provides compassionate, efficient, and safe patient care.

Overall, through various self-care activities, nurse practitioners can create healthier work environments, improve their well-being and health, decrease their stress, and increase their resilience and other team members. Again, when nurses support and receive support from other team members, work exhaustion decreases, satisfaction increases, and they can create a more positive work environment, which cultivates self-care and resilience.

References

Barratt, C. (2018). Developing resilience: the role of nurses, healthcare teams and organisations. Nursing Standard, 33(7), 43-49.

Blackburn, L. M., Thompson, K., Frankenfield, R., Harding, A., & Lindsey, A. (2020). The THRIVE© Program: Building Oncology Nurse Resilience Through Self-Care Strategies. In Oncology Nursing Forum (Vol. 47, No. 1).

McNamara, C. J. (2019). Fostering Self-Care and Nurse Resilience (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).

Öksüz, E., Demiralp, M., Mersin, S., Tüzer, H., Aksu, M., & Sarıkoc, G. (2019). Resilience in nurses in terms of perceived social support, job satisfaction and certain variables. Journal of nursing management, 27(2), 423-432.

Yılmaz, E. B. (2017). Resilience as a strategy for struggling against challenges related to the nursing profession. Chinese Nursing Research, 4(1), 9-13.