Resilience as Accusation: A Critical Examination of Individual Resilience Training for Burnout Mitigation

Abstract

Abstract Burnout, a syndrome of work-related exhaustion and cynicism, is prevalent among nurses and is associated with workplace stressors. Resilience training programs are a prevalent method of burnout mitigation employed by healthcare institutions that aim to improve or alter how individuals respond to chronic stressors. Through the lens of General Systems Theory, we describe resilience training as a method of individualizing a systemic problem by problematizing a response to chronic stress exposure. Resilience training may furthermore serve as a mechanism which allows subversion of institutional responsibility for nurses’ well-being in the workplace. We describe several suggestions for nurses to resist being scapegoated for their responses to systemic problems. Sustainable change must include other disciplines and is likely to require multiple different avenues including individual (e.g., honoring meal breaks), institutional (e.g., increased leadership participation), legislative (e.g., mandatory staffing laws), collective (e.g., collective bargaining), and educational (e.g., emancipatory pedagogy) methods