Improving essential care through improving care provider resilience. Putting nurses in the lead in choosing and testing evidence-based interventions

To provide high-quality essential care, nurses and nursing assistants need to be resilient: able to maintain their balance when facing setbacks and cope effectively with challenging situations such as high workloads or moral distress resulting from being unable to provide the care they consider appropriate.

Aim

In the Choosing Resilience project, 3 nursing teams—working in an intensive care unit, a hospice, and a nursing home—took the lead in strengthening their own resilience. 

Approach

Rather than implementing predefined interventions, the teams identified, selected, and tested evidence-informed interventions and strategies based on their own needs, priorities, and experiences. Researchers worked alongside the teams to evaluate the effects of these interventions on professional resilience and the quality of essential care. The project also examined whether and how this participatory process enhanced nurses' professional autonomy and sense of ownership.

Results

The project resulted in the development of the Choosing Resilience methodology (Kiezen voor Veerkracht): a practical, step-by-step approach that enables nursing teams to identify their resilience needs, select appropriate evidence-informed interventions, and evaluate their impact in their own context. In addition, the project generated practical tools and implementation guidance to support wider adoption of the methodology.

 Throughout the project, close collaboration with vocational (MBO) and higher professional (HBO) nursing education programmes helped ensure that the methodology could also be integrated into nursing education, thereby strengthening resilience from the start of professional practice.