What is it about?

This article explores the meaning of positive psychology and the importance resilience has on the wellbeing of the mental health workforce. It will consider its uplifting effects through contemporary use in the field of mental health nursing.

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Why is it important?

Resilience is often thought of as the ability to bounce back in the face of adversity. Life will present difficulties and these test individuals’ resilience and levels of it. However, some people seem to be more resilient that others. Negative emotions are part of life, so it is how we deal with and recover from them that may help us manage adversity through conscious activities. Addressing and overcoming negative emotions will be different for different people, as this depends on motivation, belief of benefit, the level of challenge the negative emotion presented, how often these negative emotions occur and are balanced against other life issues

Perspectives

Resilience is a construct that is used in positive psychology because it is a multidimensional factor.Resilience has become a topic in contemporary discourse in education, health and professional settings. It promises new hope in these challenging and fast‐paced environments for individuals who need to maintain their standards and values. It is inviting greater interest in research and practice relating to nursing, as a high level of resilience is considered essential for nurses to be successful as a practitioner and to manage their workload (Cooper et al, 2020).Resilience in mental health nurses should be explored thoroughly within staff wellbeing policy and practice and that the characteristics of resilient nurses should be shared to support development of others. This may help to improve retention in the profession and positively affect care outcomes. Strategic interventions around health promotion, addressing work–life balance and the effects of team and organisational changes and other negative variables should be offered.We might not be able to change the situation but we can choose to change our response.

Mrs Jan Macfarlane
University of Bolton

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Positive psychology: resilience and its role within mental health nursing, British Journal of Mental Health Nursing, January 2021, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/bjmh.2020.0049.
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