NURS08059 Resilience in Healthcare Assignment Guide 2026 | UWS

NURS08059 Assignment Guide

Assessment Template Parts 1 & 2.

All required areas must be completed in full, including your

Word count
Banner ID

The file named convention

You must confirm if an extension has been granted and state the name of the staff member who authorised this.

10-marks will be deducted from your final mark, if you do not:

• use the provided assessment template.
• include the word count.
• adhere to the maximum word count of 3,300 words.

RiH submitted.fail.docx

IMG_0256.jpeg

Assessment Questions

Section 1.

Discuss the concept of resilience in health and social care, and the factors that affect resilience, including adverse experiences, risk factors, and protective factors.

Assessment Content And Guide

Nurses must understand the concept of resilience and how risk, adversity or challenging situations can affect the resilience of those they nurse, and how each patient/individual can adapt and recover (i.e. the ability to bounce back) from setbacks, stress or trauma.

Resilience

Resilience is the ability to adapt, recover, and thrive in the face of adversity, stress, or significant challenges. It involves a combination of inner strength and external support that help an individual to maintain their mental and emotional well-being, even during difficult times. Resilience is not a fixed trait; it can be developed and strengthened over time through experiences, relationships, and effort.

Reduced resilience can contribute to making poor lifestyle choices and the adoption of unhealthy behaviours. Individual resilience is therefore needed to shape our mindset and attitudes that may ultimately influence our life choices and contribute to our personal growth and wellbeing.

Risk Factors

Risk factors and adverse experiences are situations, characteristics, or circumstances that increase the likelihood of negative outcomes, such as poor mental health, maladaptive behaviours, or challenges in achieving life goals. These factors can occur at individual, family, community, or societal levels and often interact to create heightened vulnerability. Some factors may prevent an individual or communities of people, e.g. nursing homes during COVD, from being able to maintain their wellbeing and successfully cope/bounce back/adjust to pressures in difficult situations.

Risk factors and adversity can impede a patient/individual’s resilience, such as poverty, exposure to violence and lack of social support. Vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly may find it harder to cope with risk and adversity. Consequently, protective factors are needed to avoid or address these risks factors in order to enhance the overall resilience of individuals and communities.

Protective Factors

Protective factors are characteristics or conditions that help individuals, families, or communities manage and mitigate the negative effects of risk and adversity. These factors promote resilience and healthy development, buffering against stressors and challenges. Protective factors can exist at multiple levels, including individual, family, community, and societal contexts.

When answering this question, you must discuss the following:

• Definitions of resilience and the overall theoretical concept of resilience (e.g. views and phrases, nature/nurture debate, different types of resilience etc.).
• The socioeconomic and other risk factors which can affect an individual or communities’ resilience may include, for example, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), psychological trauma, sustained poverty, etc.
• The protective factors, e.g. people, resources, strategies, services, etc. that are available to maintain or promote resilience in individuals, families and communities.
• You must refer to credible evidence sources, including seminal and contemporary research, that underpin current practice in relation to resilience. Wider reading allows you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the concept of resilience within health and social care, and you must provide relevant references to support your work (e.g., current textbooks, national and global recommendations, best practice/clinical guidelines, systematic reviews and other research articles).

Please note: All research and other evidence used to support your discussion should be current, credible and relevant for the delivery of health care and nursing practice within a Scottish context. Please avoid research from countries where the health care system and nursing practice is different from that in Scotland/UK.

25 marks

Section 2.

Discuss the opportunities available within health and social care environments that can help enable / promote the resilience of an individual or community.

Identify an opportunity from a practice learning experience where low resilience was determined in an individual or community. You must discuss suitable tools, methods, or frameworks that can be used to assess and plan care to promote resilience during the ‘opportunity’ identified 

You are required to discuss the opportunities nationally (Scotland) and within your Health Board Area relating to health and social care that aim to promote resilience in individuals and/or communities’.

There are a number of drivers within health and social care aimed at enhancing an individual and/or communities’ resilience, and they all play a crucial role in fostering a supportive environment to help reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes and promoting positive outcomes.

Governed by policy, the provisions offered by health and social care services provide the opportunity to boost resilience in several ways. These include accessible mental health services, preventative care and community health programmes, adequate healthcare infrastructure, health education, and social support networks. These all contribute to an individual and /or communities’ ability to cope with challenges and maintain health and wellbeing.

Nurses are part of these services and are required to understand the opportunities within their role for enabling resilience in an individual and/or community.

When answering this question, you must discuss the following:

• Patient demographics and the challenges/adversities faced by society in these areas.
• Discuss the opportunities nationally (Scotland) and within your Health Board Area relating to health and social care that aims to promote resilience in individuals and/or communities.
• The health and social care services available within these demographic areas, and the benefits of these services in providing opportunities to enable the wellbeing and resilience of individuals and/or communities.
• You must discuss an ‘opportunity’ from a placement learning experience, of a situation where low resilience was suspected in an individual and/or community. For example, on admission; a planned intervention such as a dressing change; an opportunistic moment, e.g. when making a bed, etc.
• Using this example, identify and discuss why low resilience was suspected. How was it confirmed? What tools and techniques are available to assess someone’s level of resilience?
• Discuss a tool, method or framework that could be used to further assess and plan care to help promote resilience during and after the ‘opportunity’ you identify. This may include risk assessments, care plans, use of strengths-based / asset-based approaches, caring conversations that form a safe, values based, person centred care approach, or any other suitable method.

Please note: All research and other evidence used to support your discussion should be current, credible and relevant for the delivery of health care and nursing practice within a Scottish context. Please avoid research from countries where the health care system and nursing practice is different from that in Scotland/UK.

25 marks

Section 3.

Discuss nursing interventions that help promote wellbeing, and the benefits of these in enabling / promoting an individuals’ or communities’ resilience.

Select one example from a placement learning experience and discuss how tools/techniques used in this intervention enabled /promoted resilience and supported health and wellbeing.

You are required to discuss nursing interventions used to enable and promote resilience, and the benefits of these in supporting independence and health and wellbeing. You must relate one of these interventions to a situation from any of your placement learning experience.

Nurses must recognise the close connection between resilience and wellbeing and how a resilient person can better cope with stress and adapt to changes.

Nurses have a role as resilience facilitators, in supporting others in difficult situations to enhance their wellbeing and help maintain a positive outlook, ultimately promoting a healthier and more balanced life. In doing so, a nurse uses a variety of nursing interventions to help others successfully cope and maintain overall health.

When answering this question, you must discuss the following:

• Nursing interventions that help promote wellbeing and the benefit of these interventions to enable the resilience of others. This may include emotional support, promoting self-care, the use of therapeutic relationships or motivational conversations to help build and strengthen coping skills.
• You must select one of the nursing interventions that you used to enhance / promote resilience and discuss how you applied this to a situation in practice.
• You must discuss how your intervention helped to build and strengthen the resilience of an individual and/or community and  supported a positive health and wellbeing outcome. How did you determine whether it was successful or not?
• You must refer to credible and relevant sources, showing wider reading and linking theory with practice to support your discussion. Refer, where relevant, to tools and techniques that are commonly used in a Scottish/UK context, i.e. They may use different assessment tools in other countries or have different parameters for referral.

25 marks

Section 4.

Discuss the benefits and potential impact of a ‘positive resilient health and social care workforce’ in supporting patient health care or community health improvement.

You are required to discuss the benefits and potential impact of a positive resilient health and social care workforce in supporting patient care.

A resilient healthcare team can enhance patient care in many ways, such as by being adaptable, communicative, collaborative, emotionally supportive etc., but to enable the resilience of others, nurses must, in themselves, be resilient.

However, nurses face various challenges in their job role that can impact their resilience. These include high workloads, emotional stress, lack of resources, shift work, irregular hours, etc. Addressing these challenges is crucial to promote the overall wellbeing of nurses.

You are required to provide evidence from relevant literature within your discussion to describe the importance of having a positive resilient healthcare/social care team and the impact this has in supporting patient care.

When answering this question, you must discuss the following:

• The benefits of a resilient health/social care team and how this significantly contributes to patient care.
• The key challenges faced by nurses and health/social care teams (e.g. workload, emotional stress, job challenges) and the impact this could have on their resilience and the consequences for patient care. You may wish to consider systemic resilience and organisational resilience, in relation to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, in your discussion here.
• Support networks and resources (e.g. colleague and team support, employee assistance, coping techniques or mentorship programmes) that empower nurses and health/social care teams to effectively manage key challenges in the support of patient care.
• You must reference relevant contemporary literature, current policies and practice which relate to improved patient care and outcomes within a Scottish context.

This should include reference to Scottish Government legislation and policy; NHS Scotland’s plans and strategies; NMC directives and information from other agencies / organisations inside and outside the Scotland that have examples of good practice, e.g. the World Health Organisation (WHO); NHS England. Wales, Ireland; other countries with a similar health care delivery systems and nursing roles. If you use the Royal College of Nursing (RCN)

please ensure that the article is accessible to those that are not RCN members.

25 marks

Referencing

References must be included for all citations and arranged in an alphabetical order.

References and citations should be presented using the “UWS Cite Them Right Harvard” style.

The references should be in alphabetic order and where the same author(s) are submitted multiple times these should in chronological order. Where the same author(s) have more than one article published on the same a, b, c, etc should be used. Starting with the very first time the author is cited, i.e.  (Smith, 2021a); (Smith, 2021b), etc.

There should be consistency (all written the same way), e.g. The Nursing and Midwifery Council or Nursing and Midwifery Council or NMC.

The best option is ‘ The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2018) The Code, etc…’

When citing ‘The NMC (2018) stated…..’ or at end of a sentence ‘(NMC, 2018).’

The Code does not lend itself to be part of a discussion. It is simply setting out the ‘rules’. The Standards of Proficiency for the Registered Nurse is a better option.

No marks awarded but marks will reflect the referencing component as per the rubric re wider reading etc. This includes sources that are of a low quality, referencing errors and information unsupported by references.

Academic Writing

The assignment should be structured in a logical manner with the use of signposting (appropriate linkage between paragraphs and sections to provide continuity and flow) to better guide the reader.

It MUST be written in the 3rd person throughout, and in a formal academic tone using appropriate clinical and professional language.

Proofreading for spelling, grammar and punctuation is advised prior to submitting the final version.

Your work should be clear, concise and supported by high quality evidence that is referenced throughout the assignment.

The Front Cover Sheet should be completed correctly and attached as the first page of the assessment.

The Font recommended is Arial 11 or Calibri 12 (or similar). 1.5/2 point line spacing/ This allows for in-text comments. The Font type and size should be the same for the Reference list

Paragraphs should have an obvious space between them.

No marks awarded but marks will reflect the academic writing component within the assessment rubric for level 8.