Gratitude And Resilience For Nurses: The Role Of
Gratitude In Building, Emotional Strength In The
Face Of Stress
COVID-19 managed to push nurses to their very limit.
Supporting grieving families, handling critical patients with minimal protective gear, and dealing
with hostile situations have left many nurses feeling physically and mentally drained.
An exhausted nurse begins to feel detached from their job and disengaged from their work. This
leads to nurses eventually leaving their jobs, staff shortages and creates a vicious cycle that is hard to come back from.
No matter the difficulty level involved in a workplace, we must foster a positive work
environment that builds communication and safety.
So, the question arises, how can we practice gratitude in nursing and how does it lead to resilience?
What is gratitude?
To be thankful is to have gratitude and gratitude is the key to happiness. Being thankful for what
you have in life can lead you to health, happiness, and resilience. This is proven further when
you express your gratitude towards others as it inspires them to be kind and helpful.
In the workplace expressing gratitude can lead to improvement in stress handling, increase job
satisfaction and improve self-efficacy.
How does gratitude improve resilience?
Nurses go through a lot on any given day; their workday is an emotional rollercoaster, dealing
with sick patients, talking to families and supporting doctors. It’s tough to go through all this
without breaking down under the stress.
Resilience improves nurses’ physical and mental health by providing a meditative effect and
reducing their psychological stress. This is set by practising gratitude as it blocks out all toxic
emotions such as envy, resentment, regret, and depression, which can block out all positive
sentiments and affect your resilience.
Practising gratitude in nursing
Gratitude is all about expressing the positive sentiments that you come across in your
workplace and all it takes is doing the simple things:
1. From the first ring of the alarm: Many times when we wake up, all we want to do is roll
over and sleep. Let’s stop that. From now onwards when you wake up, let the very first
thought be of something you are grateful for. Start with positive thoughts and keep
thinking about them throughout the day.
2. No more complaining: Being a nurse is never easy but when we complain all that
negativity enters into our space and ruins everything that we have worked so hard to
build. So, the next time you feel like complaining, take a deep breath and think about
something you are grateful for.
3. The gratitude journal: Keep a journal for a month and write about things for which you
are grateful, work hassles, or anything that comes to mind. This lets you put all your
thoughts into place and can create a different perspective on the way that you think.
4. The gratitude tree: Find an empty wall in a corridor at work and encourage people to fill
it up with post-it notes about what you are thankful for. Now whenever you walk through
the corridor, all you will see and feel is gratitude, happiness, and resilience.
Reflection:
1. What are 3 things you’re grateful for today?
2. Who at work can you give gratitude to this week?
3. Do you think your workplace will start a gratitude tree
Sources:
https://bmcnurs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12912-021-00803-z
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/can_practicing_gratitude_boost_nurses_resilience
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_nurses_are_practicing_gratitude_even_in_a_
pandemic
https://www.registerednursing.org/articles/eight-ways-instill-gratitude-into-nursing-practice/
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