Understanding resilience among traditional baccalaureate nursing students

As members of Generation Z, traditional baccalaureate nursing students contend with a mental illness epidemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, economic inflation, and frequent gun violence. Enrollment in nursing education programs adds to these stressors. Students often find themselves unprepared for high academic and related clinical expectations and emotional and psychological demands of nursing education. Resilience offers students a process for overcoming obstacles presented to advance through nursing education programs and enter professional practice. Fully understanding resilience to support success, from the perspective of today’s students, is critical to future health care. This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenology study, guided by Heideggerian hermeneutical interpretive phenomenology, explored the meaning and process of the lived experience of resilience among current traditional baccalaureate nursing students of Generation Z. A purposive sample of 13 third- and fourth-year students with the experience of resilience in personal life and/or nursing education participated in the study. A study survey and interviews using a conversational guide facilitated data collection. Data analysis was supported by the hermeneutic circle congruent with interpretative phenomenological analysis, with transcribed interviews iteratively and repeatedly read, moving from parts to the whole and back to parts to interpretively arrive at thematic findings relative to the research questions of the study. Demographic and narrative results included contextual factors related to resilience, along with participant insights into the study experience and resilience. Thematic results revealed two main themes, each with four subthemes. For understanding ‘What is the lived experience of resilience?’, the main theme Maneuvering the murky water emerged, with four subthemes: Not a crashing train, Choosing the hard path, Building yourself back up, and Adopting a positive mindset. For understanding “What is the meaning of events within the lived experience of resilience?” The main theme We make mistakes and I’m still going to be a good nurse emerged, with four subthemes: This can either ruin me or I can keep moving with it, You kind of have to do it yourself if you want to succeed, Balancing it all correctly, and I’ve grown up in the nursing program. For understanding ‘What is the resilience process within the nursing education context?’, several themes united in an iterative and repetitive process – with three resilience precursor themes of A rude awakening, Emotional or shut down, and Unknown outcome, connected to core resilience themes of Hope and decision, Using resources and acting, and Energy and A positive mindset, and ending with the resilience biproduct theme of A clear plan to move forward (again and again). This study’s findings added a foundational understanding of the meaning and process of resilience among Generation Z students that may be used by traditional baccalaureate nursing programs to individually support them. Nurse educators may potentially benefit from the findings of this study by gaining a deeper understanding of resilience among their’ nursing students from their students’ perspective. Future research and education innovations should aim to build on understanding the lived experience of resilience among these students to enhance resilience.