Effectiveness of resilience education on quality of working life among nursing personnel: A randomized controlled study

Improving quality of working life (QWL) among nurses is crucial for enhancing their performance and, consequently, delivery of quality nursing care to patients. Resilience skills assist nurses to deal better with workplace adversity and demands. Hence, this research examined the effect of teaching resilience skills on nurses’ QWL in a private hospital in Tehran, Iran. This was a randomized controlled study that was carried out in 2015. Sixty nurses in a private hospital in Tehran, Iran were allotted to two experimental (30 nurses) and control (30 nurses) groups. Nurses in the experimental group were taught about the QWL, job stress, and burnout and resiliency in two 3 hours educational sessions. In addition, they attended 9 practical 1.5 hours training sessions. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used to collect nurses’ QWL data. Data was analyzed using SPSS, v. 17 statistical software. The mean score of nurses’ QWL in the intervention group increased from 2.68 to 3.01 out of 5 (12.3% increase). The paired t-test confirmed the difference as significant (p = 0.003). There was no significant changes in the control group’s QWL at the beginning and the end of the study (2.68 vs. 2.69). Resilience education and training had the most effect on disturbance handling, participation and involvement, job promotion, job security, and salaries dimensions of QWL of the study group. Resilience education and training reduces nurses’ job stress and improves their quality of working life.