Fostering Self-Care and Nurse Resilience

Role expectations and stressful work environments place nurses at high risk for burnout. Nurses at an urban hospital were experiencing unhealthy work environments and not engaging in self-care to promote health and wellbeing. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of an existing quality improvement (QI) initiative developed to encourage nurses to engage in self-care. Pender\u27s health promotion model supported the premise that despite barriers, nurses will engage in self-care. A survey elicited responses from 1,248 participating registered nurses on the extent of their engagement with self-care and perceived effect on their health, health knowledge, stress level, and resilience. A chi-square test of independence was used to determine the relationship between participation in unit activities and the participants\u27 health, health knowledge, stress level, and resilience. Thirty-one percent (n = 387) participated and 69% (n = 861) did not participate. No relationship existed between overall participation and the nurses\u27 health, health knowledge, stress level, and resilience. A positive relationship existed between the number of activities and the nurses\u27 health, health knowledge, and stress level. No relationship existed between the number of activities and resilience. Reasons for participation were to improve or maintain health. Barriers included activities not available on all shifts and heavy workload. Recommendations include offering lunch-and-learn educational health programs, offering educational programs to foster resiliency, and offering activities on different shifts. Nurses who engage in self-care have the potential to serve as role models for positive social change for patients, families, and colleagues