“There is no one definition of resilience. It is a fascinating word because it simultaneously can invoke great meaning—such as the ability to reclaim purpose or dignity following trauma—and imply wholly different things to different people”

“Nurses were intimately familiar with moral distress and burnout prior to COVID-19. When the pandemic began, it brought an avalanche of stressors that piled on top of existing nursing strain from decades of cumulative, unaddressed system dysfunction. The nursing resignations that have followed are not a function of individual nurses’ mental strength or ability to perform self-care during off-hours; they are a function of many health care systems’ failure to recognize and invest in the nursing workforce. The truth is that the majority of nurses show a great capacity for resilience. Resilience is a requirement for long-term success in most nursing roles. (In ideal training settings, this inherent resilience is enhanced
through mentorship and teaching. During the pandemic, it was health care systems that crumbled under mounting pressures while nurses often carried the pieces.”