Dear Carmen,

It is a common misconception that resilient people experience no negative emotions or thoughts and display optimism in all situations. Resilient people effectively balance negative emotions with positive ones, utmost, they adopt an inner attitude towards the experience e.g. in the form of self-transcendens in devastating situations where no other options are available.  Resilience is considered to comprise:

-The ability to make realistic plans and being capable of taking the steps necessary to follow through with them

-A positive self-concept and confidence in one’s strengths and abilities

-Communication and problem-solving skills

-The ability to manage strong impulses and feelings

As a student it helps if you consider your choise of profession as the "only thing" that makes you really happy.

In our research we discuss moral resilience and apply Viktor Frankl's existential philosophy as a link between moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral resilience.

Thank you Joaquin and Beatrice. Is there any research indicating any differences or no differences in gender issues, educational level, marital status or age? Thanks again.

Sex Differences in the Heritability of Resilience

Jason D. Boardman et al.  Twin Res Hum Genet. Feb 2008; 11(1): 12–27.

Age and Gender Effects on Resilience in Children and Adolescents. Jing Sun and Donald Stewart ; [email protected];  [email protected]

Psychological Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Successful Adaptation to Stress in Later Life. Anthony D. Ong et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2006, Vol. 91, No. 4, 730–749

Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms.

Rutter, Michael

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol 57(3), Jul 1987, 316-331.

Beatrice, I really appreciate the resourceful information that you have sent me. Again - Thanks so much.

You can find elements in this document

This is a really interesting question. I am wondering whether - as you then asked about the effect of gender, age, educational level and marital status - whether I was too late in mentioning articles that relate to nursing. Jackson et al. 2007 reviewed the literature and proposed some self-development strategies:   

• Building positive nurturing professional relationships and networks.

• Maintaining positivity.

• Developing emotional insight.

• Achieving life balance and spirituality.

• Becoming more reflective.

Jackson, D., Firtko, A., & Edenborough, M. (2007). Personal resilience as a strategy for surviving and thriving in the face of workplace adversity: a literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 60(1), 1-9.

The authors have some interesting references including:

Tusaie, K., & Dyer, J. (2004). Resilience: A historical review of the construct. Holistic Nursing Practice, 18(1), 3-10.

When I looked at resilience in 'Living with faecal incontinence' I used a paper by:

Friborg, O., Hjemdal, O., Rosenvinge, J. H., & Martinussen, M. (2003). A new rating scale for adult resilience: What are the central protective resources behind healthy adjustment?. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 12(2), 65-76. The researchers also look at age and gender characteristics and mention education. Their dimensions of resilience are: Personal competence, Social competence, Personal structure, Family coherence, Social support.

Good luck with this, Mary 

Hi all,

Currently working with nursing student of all year levels in clinical workplaces and have done extensive work with students in this area.(Working on ways to extend research on this). I find it essential to provide students with some background education on how perception works, the unconscious "programming" we all have and how we perceive,filter and interpret ALL experiences through our unconscious beliefs, values and life experiences (what we think we know to be true). Once we realise that Thought generates Form, we can journey through self-awareness processes such as reflective practice, radical inquiry etc to uncover those self-limiting beliefs. Once uncovered, they can be released which  frees us to experience life, events and relationships differently. The processes of self-awareness, practicing deep self-reflection, which is an often repeated and ongoing practice IS a fundamental process in self-empowerment and in growing resilience. For nursing students, supporting their self-empowerment, to take responsibility / i.e. claim their inner power to be in control of HOW they experience what they experience builds their resilience to cope with recover from and find the deeper learning from whatever they experience - real resilience.

The problem is though that nurses have to handle issues that go against their belief and moral system. At least in Finland health-care staff have to fight for the right not to take part in some issues.

Another paper

An interesting resource at emotional resilient living web site at https://www.emotionallyresilientliving.com/