The Effects of a Resilience-Enhancing Program on Psychological and Academic Resilience among the First-Year Students at Nakhornratchasima’s College of Nursing

Abstract

Psychological resilience is an individual’s ability to overcome adversity and grow stronger from the experience. As future health professionals, the ability of nursing students to adapt in the face of adverse conditions is essential. In addition, increased resilience has been shown to positively impact nursing students in academic achievement. This quasi-experiment research aimed to investigate the effects of a resilience-enhancing program on the psychological resilience of 150 nursing students in their 1^st-year at Nakhonratchasima’s College of Nursing in the academic year of 2017. Simple random sampling technique was used to recruit 20 samples which were evenly divided into two groups, experimental and control groups. IOC value was tested and reached 0.67 - 1.00. The experimental group received the resilience-enhancing program while the control group received usual activities. The program was divided in six 90-minute interventions. Research program and instruments were adapted from Nintachan, Sangon, & Thaweekoo (2012) and theirs content validity was approved by three experts. Descriptive and t-test statistics were used to analyze data.            

Findings revealed that after the program, nursing students in the experimental group had significantly increased their resilience compared to before the intervention, and at a higher than those in the control group at p<.05.