Episode 69 – Managing the Polarity of Changing the System Versus Personal Resilience – Cynda Rushton

Cynda Hylton Rushton, PhD, RN, FAAN is the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and School of Nursing, and co-chairs Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Ethics Committee and Consultation Service. In 2016, she co-led a national collaborative State of the Science Initiative: Transforming Moral Distress into Moral Resilience in Nursing and co-chaired the American Nurses Association’s professional issues panel that created A Call to Action: Exploring Moral Resilience Toward a Culture of Ethical Practice. She was a member of the National Academies of Medicine, Science and Engineering Committee that produced the report Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-being. She is a member of the American Nurses Association Center for Ethics & Human Rights Ethics Advisory Board and American Nurses Foundation Well-Being Initiative Advisory Board. She is the editor and author of Moral Resilience: Transforming Moral Suffering in Healthcare. Dr. Rushton is a Hastings Center fellow and chair of the Hastings Center Fellows Council and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

In this episode, Dr. Rushton and I talk about the current divide between advocates of system change to improve clinician well-being, and those promoting personal resilience and well-being training. We look at the challenges of managing polarities as leaders embrace a both/and approach to team member well-being. Dr. Rushton shares the specifics of a personal resilience training that equips nurses at Hopkins to stand firm in their ethics and values, and to act as advocates for system improvement without sacrificing their personal well-being. Finally, Dr. Rushton paints a picture of leadership in which clinicians gain empowerment to manage their own well-being while acting as advocates for both their patients and their profession.

Links related to Dr. Rushton's podcast:

• Johns Hopkins research paper: Mindful ethical practice and resilience academy: Equipping nurses to address ethical challenges
• Nursing Management article: Perceived organizational effectiveness, moral injury, and moral resilience among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Nursing Management article: An expanded institutional- and national-level blueprint to address nurse burnout and moral suffering amid the evolving pandemic
• Journal of Professional Nursing article: Strengthening internal resources to promote resilience among prelicensure nursing students