Resiliency is one way to address not only compassion fatigue, but also the change fatigue that can result from multiple new initiatives, our ever-increasing workload, and major reorganizations and mergers.

The 27th annual convention of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN), which took place in Orlando September 13–16, offered a wealth of cutting-edge educational presentations along with opportunities for networking and fun. On the second full day of the conference, Marisa Streelman, an AMSN Board member as well as a unit director at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, led a town hall meeting on the subject of workplace resiliency.

Streelman started the session off by defining resiliency as “capable of withstanding shock without permanent rupture.” She reminded us that the benefits of resiliency include “bounce-ability”—the ability to come back from stress stronger than before—and a connection to workmates that helps us to be truly present at work. Resiliency is one way to address not only compassion fatigue, but also the change fatigue that can result from multiple new initiatives, our ever-increasing workload, and major reorganizations and mergers.

Ways to build workplace resiliency.

Streelman pointed out several ways in which we can build workplace resiliency:

  • make connections with others rather than “going it alone” at work
  • accept that change is a part of life
  • move toward goals in a realistic way
  • look for opportunities for self-discovery
  • nurture a positive view of ourselves
  • take care of ourselves
  • learn to enjoy life

She also referred to the work of J. Bryan Sexton at Duke University on cultivating resiliency. One of Sexton’s recommendations is to end each day by writing down three positive things that happened and noting your own role in the good outcomes. This is a way not only to express gratitude, but to retrain our brains not to dwell on negative outcomes and disappointments.

Interventions from workplaces around the country.

This framework prepared us for the most fun and instructive part of the town hall, when nurses from around the country shared ways in which their own workplaces were helping staff to develop resiliency. The ideas spilled forth. Although few of the nurses who lined up at the microphones to share ideas identified themselves or their hospitals, many of their ideas were too good not to pass along here. Their interventions were varied and often simple, hence easy to replicate.

  • On one day every month, at shift change, one hospital holds a “relax/relate/release” self care session, offering the staff aromatherapy, Reiki, and other techniques.
  • At another workplace, staff plan occasional volunteer days with coworkers at charity functions, community cleanups, walkathons, and other activities outside of the hospital. These nurses have found that they now discuss their shared non-workplace experiences at work “in place of b***ing in the med room!”
  • One facility appoints a wellness champion on each unit.
  • Another hospital made up “BE KIND” buttons. People wear the buttons and when they observe someone doing something kind, they give their own button to that person. Then the next person passes on the button when they catch someone in an act of kindness, and the buttons continue to move around in that way.
  • At a small hospital in the Florida Keys that was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, many staff who lost their homes still showed up to their temporary workplace (more or less a “MASH” unit) for their shifts. During this crisis period, the staff began the practice of contributing to a “gratitude jar” at the start of every staff meeting—writing down one thing in the midst of the devastation for which they were grateful, and depositing their slip into the jar.
  • A nurse who always found it hard not to “take her work home with her” shared a personal resiliency intervention. She devised the practice of “depositing” her worries for the day at a particular signpost on her way home. She would then pick up that burden as needed at the same place on the way in to her next shift. The key here was to choose a specific place—a sign, a landmark, a building—where you symbolically shed work concerns instead of bringing sadness or negativity home to your family after every shift.
  • One of my favorite just-for-fun suggestions was from the nurse whose hospital started a practice called Tiara Tuesdays. The staff (women and yes, men) wore tiaras to work on those days to remind the staff to laugh often. This gave patients too something unexpected to smile and talk about.

This town hall generated lots of positive energy from the hundreds of nurses present, providing a real-time lesson about our personal power to create positive change. For more on developing resiliency in nursing, especially in relation to compassion fatigue, burnout, and moral distress, see the CE article “Moral Distress: A Catalyst in Building Moral Resilience,” plus our special report, Transforming Moral Distress into Resilience in Nursing.