Profile of the hardy NICU nurse.

Interviews with our long-term NICU nurses correlated with Kobasa's hardiness research. our nurses see themselves as in control of their patients, who are entrusted to the nurses by the parents. They are committed to their work, which they view as essential. They are constantly challenged by the technological improvements and demands of their work. And, adding a fourth personality characteristic to Kobasa's work, they see companions as an integral part of their ability to cope with stress. We are interested in further investigating the companionship component and its importance for hardy NICU nurses, as well as the effects of the other hardiness characteristics. Our initial findings in our interviews, as well as further research in this area, may help in evaluating current unit policies and procedures and how they support these coping mechanisms. Our next step is to formally study our nurses and their hardy-to-stress personalities to determine whether we can effectively use a hardiness scale to direct nurses to high- or low-stress units. Another interesting question is whether nurses can be taught to become hardy. Much previous research on stress, burnout, and the nursing profession has focused on external factors and their effects on nurse retention. Utilizing Kobasa's and others' work on hardiness, we hope to learn more about the introspective factors and their relationship to the success of long-term NICU nurses.