27^th World Nursing Education Conference

Biography

Biography: Judith Francois

Abstract

This paper aims to present a pedagogical innovation in a nurse education leadership teaching programme It focuses on building the concept of resilience in nursing with the creative use of pictures and personal voices.  It is argued here that the importance of having a resilient health care workforce has significant impacts both in terms of the welfare of staff as well as for patient care.  Understanding which personal factors might help an individual to be more resilient, is an ongoing process, and as such there is a need for an understanding of the self in action. This necessitates a need for consideration of what works well and what creates further challenge. It is proposed that such an approach would provide a personal profile of issues to work on as well as areas of strength. In order to enhance understanding of personal resilience, nursing staff attending a leadership course engaged in of strategies designed to engage them in considering this aspect of their leadership.

Three key methods of engagement are employed 

1. Developing a resilience portfolio using pictures and specified questions.
2. Engaging in peer to peer discussion to support one another in identifying resilient qualities 
3. Recording and identifying personal resilience within this dialogue.

The activities were undertaken over a six-month period, and involved sessions within the course as well as work and home settings. Findings of this teaching innovation will be presented, followed by a discussion of lessons learned and a reflection about the sustainability of developing and implementing this initiative