Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
Sage Publications
Faculty
Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science
School
School of Psychology and Social Science / Lifespan Resilience Research Group
RAS ID
18477
Abstract
Assessing the well-being of postpartum mothers is an important aspect of postnatal nursing care. For this reason, Child Health Nurses (CHNs) are charged with the responsibility of identifying postpartum mothers who do/not manifest resilient behavioral qualities. However, little is known about CHNs’ conceptualization of resilience or how they assess resilience in postpartum mothers. This exemplar study addressed this knowledge shortfall by conducting semi-structured interviews with eight practicing CHNs. The study’s findings reveal that although CHNs’ conceptual understanding of resilience is congruent with current theoretical thinking, some variance does exist in the ways in which CHNs assess postpartum resilience, particularly, in relation to CHNs’ use of intuitive assessment techniques to appraise the critical maternal postpartum coping qualities of adaptation, responsiveness, self-confidence, and social connectedness.
DOI
10.1177/2158244014561210
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Comments
Collins, R. O., Pooley, J. , & Taylor, M. F. (2014). “Keeping It Together, keeping their heads above water”: Western Australian child health nurses’ understanding of resilience in postpartum mothers. Sage Open, 4(4), 10p.. Available here