Nursing, COVID and the end of resilience: A critical approach
by Michael Traynor
A review by Grace Cook
Thank you to Taylor and Francis for providing a copy of this book for review.
I work as the Resilience-based Clinical Supervision (RBCS) lead at the Foundation of Nursing Studies. RBCS is a restorative model of clinical supervision with an underpinning in ecological resilience. This focuses on collective and systematic responses to adversity as opposed to focus on an individual response. Nursing in particular has very much focused on resilience as an individual attribute which was heightened during the COVID pandemic. Therefore, as an advocate for ecological resilience and the importance of communities and systems in response to adversity I was really interested in reading this book.
The book stands out as unique within a market that is saturated with measures of resilience in nursing and innovations to support the “bouncebackability” of healthcare workers. This book considers an alternative view of resilience – as a systematic and organisational responsibility. Many nurses and organisations are starting to think in this way, this book considers philosophical, psychoanalytical and even religious underpinnings, a powerful justification as to why they should be doing this.
Summary
The book begins by setting the scene, a powerful reminder of the human lives that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with a tribute to the first nurse that died. However, as Traynor discusses, nursing in the United Kingdom was experiencing various challenges prior to this. Traynor identifies key dates, starting with the financial crash in 2008, and the impact of key political (and public) decisions on the working conditions of nurses leading up to March 2020 with the first UK lockdown.
The book goes on to consider resilience and what this is. It was a term first coined in the 1970s and became linked to nursing staff in the 1990s. Traynor considers positive psychology and critically examines this, it’s relation to resilience and also the impact of environmental factors on our “happiness” and levels of resilience. He updates a literature review, previously completed in 2015 and questions, is there beginning to be a shift in resilience. Nurses certainly seem to think there needs to be!
Traynor then focuses on the impact of COVID, on a global scale and a more local one. He paints a bleak picture of the reality of nursing during COVID, particularly for people from the global majority. His powerful writing brought back lots of memories for me of my experiences at the time, the fear that I felt and the sense of no one knowing what was going on.
Memories of the emotions of the time did come with a sense of pride though, as did reading chapter 5 where the rollout of the vaccines are considered and an example is shared from North Central London. If we consider resilience on an ecological level with systematic and organisational responsibilities, the seven themes that are identified throughout chapter 5 encapsulates this beautifully and actually demonstrates the amazing impact that can happen on all levels when we work collaboratively, as Traynor describes almost as a “wartime” effort.
At this point the book shifts to consider both trauma and moral distress, both terms frequently in the system and it is useful to consider what these actually are, and also how we move forward with them and find meaning.
In the final chapter, Traynor mentions that writing the book as balanced between pure optimism and pure pessimism was a challenge, one he has met. He concludes with considering the future of nursing and suggestions for innovations organisations have had that focus on a more system level of resilience, particularly the power of talking.
Overall
Whilst this book cannot be considered a balanced view of available literature into resilience, you could argue that this is absolutely necessary given the sheer volume of focus on individual attributes throughout current available literature. Traynor’s writing is such that you can feel the emotions behind his words, the anger at the experiences of nurses and those that contributed to that. He provides a strong and powerful argument about the need to think critically about resilience.
I would recommend this book for anyone who is starting to think more critically about the term resilience, and probably more importantly those who aren’t. It will provide an alternative view and clear underpinnings as to the changes needed in nursing.
The next step for us is action, to consider how do we use this knowledge to create sustainable, resilient, agile organisations within healthcare.
Nursing, COVID and the end of resilience: A critical approach