HJAR May/Jun 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  MAY / JUN 2025 45 Joyce Simmons, DNP, APRN, CNS-BC Professor of Nursing Strategies for Building Essential Traits Nurse leaders must promote self-ini- tiated activities to strengthen their own personal resilience along with organiza- tional support. A key strategy for aiding with resilience is knowing where nurse leaders are by assessing them, using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 [CD- RISC 25]. 5, 6 Once you know their thoughts, you can implement strategies to promote well-being and resilience. Research findings include the use of mindfulness and stress management tech- niques, which have shown a significantly positive effect on influencing stress in the workplace. 7, 8, 9, 10 The centering of mindful- ness offers an outlet to cope and escape by focusing on awareness. Another strategy would be promoting physical health maintenance for nurse leaders. 11, 12 Out of 125 nurse leaders, a sig- nificant majority had less than seven hours of sleep per night, less than 150 minutes of exercise per week, and less than five serv- ings of fruits and vegetables daily, which does not meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for a healthy lifestyle. 11, 13 Self-care is encour- aged, as it’s important for overall well-be- ing. Taking care of oneself is not selfish, but an act of compassion. 14 Implementing supportive healthcare and well-being visits during workplace hours could be beneficial to give nurses and leaders a sense that their health mat- ters. 11 Other strategies include emotional maturity activities, transparency com- munication, and promoting establishing personal boundaries to enhance work- force engagement. 15, 16 Understanding the influence of emotional intelligence can shed light on ways to improve engagement and performance. 15 For unit engagement to occur and to meet ever-growing orga- nizational goals, a leader needs to be fully transparent. 16 By establishing boundary spacing, the focus is on collaboration in the team, which improves workflow and ensures effective communication. 17 Time management skills facilitate nurse leaders to define goals, manage mechanisms, con- trol their time, and establish order, which promotes workplace resiliency. 18 Using these personal strategies, nurse leaders often help other nurses when they practice effective self-care and coping strategies. 19 They are practicing what they preach. Organizational Strategies Building a support network can im- prove resiliency in the workplace. Support can come from administration, peers, or outside organizations. Mentorship programs can foster staff engagement and improve the quality of care. 20 Nurse leaders collaborating with a mentor can promote social support by holding scheduled debriefing sessions with other nurse leaders, where they can bond and learn from others while shar- ing stories and experiences. 21 Mentorship is a feasible strategy that helps promote self-awareness, confidence, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking and im- proves communication. 20 These nurse leaders can collaborate with their network to help drive change, influence policy decisions, and improve their organization’s standard of care. 22 Leaders need to focus on these traits and network relationships to promote an inno- vative atmosphere as a visionary. Nurturing leadership growth can also be supported by something as simple as us- ing the “Three Good Things,” in which they send praise emails to other nurse leaders discussing what three good things they learned or succeeded at, such as increas- ing Press Ganey score benchmarks, low turnover, no sentinel events, or budgetary prudence. 14, 23 Encouraging support de- partments, such as the chaplain, to come to leadership meetings for a “Tea for the Soul” to support nurse leaders, even in the C-suite. 14 Meaningful recognition, such as an internal organizational leadership award, can demonstrate that the organi- zation values and appreciates its nurse leaders. Koprowski also identified medi- tation, wellness websites, or wellness apps as ways to increase a nurse leader’s resil- iency using the CD-RISC scale. 24 Organiz- ing a leadership conference addressing the most common issues that nursing leaders need assistance with would be highly intu- itive to their needs. Lastly, encouraging them to seek certi- fication from the American Organization for Nursing Leadership or allowing them membership to Press Ganey’s Consulting Program would yield a worthy return on investment. Most of these strategies re- quire minimal financial and time commit- ments but can have a positive impact on leadership resiliency.