Speakers - WNSC 2023

Abstract

The recent pandemic and current health crises allowed open vulnerabilities and visualization into an already fragile system of expecting super skills and dedication from nurses (clinicians) without the full support of their needs. Nurses work through frequent and often unrecognized mental and physical challenges as part of their dedication to the profession. This level of dedication can often create patients out of nurses and unmet expectations from our initial view of what it means to be a nurse. It’s vital to remind nurses and teach students that self-care is equally important; it’s essential (and ok) to ask for help when needed. Health systems and executives must be proactive vs. reactive when providing support and transparency for existing and new nurses as part of their strategic plan and quality review process. Healthcare education programs should provide inclusive self-care and mental health awareness within nursing practicums. What is your advocacy role in improving healthcare quality through a resilient nursing workforce? In this session, we will discuss resilience in nursing and frontline healthcare heroes and why it’s important. You will be challenged to recognize your current preparedness to care for patients or support nurses through internal and external stressors and challenges. There will be situational case presentations of unexpected and often unrecognized sources of stressors in hopes of acknowledging and strengthening nurses for diverse care environments. By the end of the session, you will be more familiar with varied sources of clinician stress, contributing lived experience/ trauma that may affect nursing care, and how to create/ advocate for support systems that build resilience. Strengthening clinicians by providing support systems will enable them to provide the best patient care to improve healthcare quality.