- Email: [email protected]
Resilience
Teaching and Learning in Nursing xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Teaching and Learning in Nursing journal homepage: www.jtln.org
President's Message
Resilience Christy Dryer, DNP, RN, CNE ⁎ Vice-President of Academic Programs, Cecil College, One Seahawk Drive, North East, MD 21901
Taking a page out of Donna Meyer's book, I am writing to you as I fly across the country to proudly represent Organization for Associate Degree Nursing at a national convention. As I contemplate what to write about for this column, I was struck with how many individuals I knew, myself included, who have recently experienced a significant change or transition in the past few months. The loss of a loved one, a significant accident, a job change, a natural disaster, a relocation, the wedding of child, and the birth of a child were just a few that come to mind. In many instances, there were multiple challenges for one individual. As I thought about how each of these friends and family were doing with these changes, I marveled at how each was coping, adapting, and managing these significant life events. I realized that what I was thinking about was not the change or the event but the resilience that each had demonstrated. Resilience is a powerful characteristic and word. The synonyms, such as pliable, bounciness, flexibility, and elasticity, do not come close to the resonance and power of the trait of resilience. Resilience is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2017) as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” However, I think some examples of resilience are even more powerful than a definition. Recently, I was on a conference call with several colleagues, and one of them had a power outage in their academic building. The phones continued to work, but the lights went out except for the emergency lighting. He briefly left the phone call to check on his nursing students who were in the laboratory practicing skills. When he returned, he shared that the students did not panic and did not leave the building but just kept practicing their skills—resilience in training. (And the lights returned a few moments later.) Several of my colleagues were in a serious accident overseas in an area where many of us would prefer not to seek out health care. They patched each other up, took care of each other, and expedited their return to the United States. Although the story and details are not mine to share, as I listen to them and hear about their stories, I am in awe of the resilience of many of my colleagues, who refuse to let this accident define them or an otherwise amazingly powerful and positive experience.
I am sure you all have colleagues, as have I, who have been affected by the recent hurricanes. While there is sadness about the destruction and resulting loss, the focus remains on family and the safety of loved ones. Each individual speaks of feeling “lucky” that he or she and his or her family are safe. Each speaks of moving on and continuing to move forward, regardless of circumstances. Again, resilience. There are many stories of resilience that I could share. Nurses demonstrate this trait on a daily basis: returning to work the next day after a particularly difficult shift; caring for a patient that is dying, but also caring just as diligently and compassionately for the remaining patients assigned to them for that shift; advocating for a patient in a situation that the nurse knows will be difficult, but speaking up anyway; adjusting to new models of nursing and health care; educating new nurses in an evolving environment of best practices; or just simply walking back into a room to administer care to a patient who has been identified as “non-compliant.” This behavior is often labeled professionalism, nurse face, or flexibility, but what nurses are demonstrating is resilience—a behavior that is easier to describe or define than it is to display. As associate degree nursing continues to grow and evolve, I know that we, as associate degree educators, will also continue to display resilience in the face of the changing landscape of nursing education. It is not easy, and it is often challenging and frequently frustrating, but it is who we are. We will continue to educate our students to the best of our abilities, adapting to the evolving models of nursing education, while keeping the best interest of our students and the health care of our communities in the forefront of all we do. We are resilient, and I am in awe of you all. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year, Christy Dryer
References Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2017). https://www.merriam-webster.com/.
⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2017.09.010 1557-3087/© 2017 Organization for Associate Degree Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Dryer, C., Resilience, Teaching and Learning in Nursing (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2017.09.010
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Teaching and Learning in Nursing journal homepage: www.jtln.org
President's Message
Resilience Christy Dryer, DNP, RN, CNE ⁎ Vice-President of Academic Programs, Cecil College, One Seahawk Drive, North East, MD 21901
Taking a page out of Donna Meyer's book, I am writing to you as I fly across the country to proudly represent Organization for Associate Degree Nursing at a national convention. As I contemplate what to write about for this column, I was struck with how many individuals I knew, myself included, who have recently experienced a significant change or transition in the past few months. The loss of a loved one, a significant accident, a job change, a natural disaster, a relocation, the wedding of child, and the birth of a child were just a few that come to mind. In many instances, there were multiple challenges for one individual. As I thought about how each of these friends and family were doing with these changes, I marveled at how each was coping, adapting, and managing these significant life events. I realized that what I was thinking about was not the change or the event but the resilience that each had demonstrated. Resilience is a powerful characteristic and word. The synonyms, such as pliable, bounciness, flexibility, and elasticity, do not come close to the resonance and power of the trait of resilience. Resilience is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2017) as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” However, I think some examples of resilience are even more powerful than a definition. Recently, I was on a conference call with several colleagues, and one of them had a power outage in their academic building. The phones continued to work, but the lights went out except for the emergency lighting. He briefly left the phone call to check on his nursing students who were in the laboratory practicing skills. When he returned, he shared that the students did not panic and did not leave the building but just kept practicing their skills—resilience in training. (And the lights returned a few moments later.) Several of my colleagues were in a serious accident overseas in an area where many of us would prefer not to seek out health care. They patched each other up, took care of each other, and expedited their return to the United States. Although the story and details are not mine to share, as I listen to them and hear about their stories, I am in awe of the resilience of many of my colleagues, who refuse to let this accident define them or an otherwise amazingly powerful and positive experience.
I am sure you all have colleagues, as have I, who have been affected by the recent hurricanes. While there is sadness about the destruction and resulting loss, the focus remains on family and the safety of loved ones. Each individual speaks of feeling “lucky” that he or she and his or her family are safe. Each speaks of moving on and continuing to move forward, regardless of circumstances. Again, resilience. There are many stories of resilience that I could share. Nurses demonstrate this trait on a daily basis: returning to work the next day after a particularly difficult shift; caring for a patient that is dying, but also caring just as diligently and compassionately for the remaining patients assigned to them for that shift; advocating for a patient in a situation that the nurse knows will be difficult, but speaking up anyway; adjusting to new models of nursing and health care; educating new nurses in an evolving environment of best practices; or just simply walking back into a room to administer care to a patient who has been identified as “non-compliant.” This behavior is often labeled professionalism, nurse face, or flexibility, but what nurses are demonstrating is resilience—a behavior that is easier to describe or define than it is to display. As associate degree nursing continues to grow and evolve, I know that we, as associate degree educators, will also continue to display resilience in the face of the changing landscape of nursing education. It is not easy, and it is often challenging and frequently frustrating, but it is who we are. We will continue to educate our students to the best of our abilities, adapting to the evolving models of nursing education, while keeping the best interest of our students and the health care of our communities in the forefront of all we do. We are resilient, and I am in awe of you all. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year, Christy Dryer
References Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2017). https://www.merriam-webster.com/.
⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2017.09.010 1557-3087/© 2017 Organization for Associate Degree Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Dryer, C., Resilience, Teaching and Learning in Nursing (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2017.09.010