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Heroism and nursing: A thematic review of the literature
Abstract
Objectives:
Nursing history is replete with examples of heroic individuals acting courageously to meet the needs of vulnerable patients and communities. Heroism exemplifies the pinnacle of self-actualised behaviour. It fuels the plots of countless human stories, and enthrals and inspires people. Yet, heroism may be seen as an extreme behaviour that only exceptional individuals are capable of enacting, and may thus be seen as out of reach for ordinary nurses, and something that could be risky to teach and disseminate. An alternative view is that altruistic professions such as nursing are often regarded as being heroic by nature, and that nurses therefore need to be encouraged to understand, deepen and exercise their potential through a recognition of acts of heroism in nursing - whether these can be classed as exceptional or everyday acts of nursing heroism. The purpose of this article is to provide a thematic review of the literature on heroism in nursing, in order to understand how recent research in heroism science is being, or could be, applied to the nursing discipline. Heroism science is an emerging research area that is of interest to nursing leaders, educators and all those seeking to advance the social change agenda in healthcare.
Review methods:
A literature review was undertaken in 2017 using CINAHL, PUBMED, Cochrane, Medline, and Google Scholar. The search was limited to papers that were peer reviewed, in English, and published in the last ten years.
Results:
Four books and 33 papers were identified.
Conclusion:
Gaining a clear understanding of what constitutes a hero and heroism is essential to applying heroism to nursing and to education of students so they are inspired to act courageously.
... overseas in pandemics such as ebola or in war zones. Such individuals have been acknowledged as heroic as they endure personal risks, such as illness or injury, contagion of disease, or the possibility of physical harm through violence, and abuse, yet they continue to care for patients (Schroeter, 2007;Darbyshire, 2011;Mac Donald et al., 2018). These serve as examples of such external forces and transformative processes in which the public association with health work is moved from the mundane and unappreciated to heroic discourse along with exceptional and sudden valorization (Hennekam et al., 2020;Mohammed et al., 2021). ...
... The role of heroes in contemporary society was revealed as a theme by Mac Donald et al. (2018) which drew on the Heroes Functions Framework of Kinsella et al. (2015). This framework recognized that within society heroes serve the three functions of: enhancing or enriching the lives of others; promoting morals and ethics and protecting others from physical or psychological threats. ...
... Above all argue Allison and Goethals (2016) hero narratives provide scripts for prosocial action, promoting moral elevation, and inspiring psychological development. Mac Donald et al. (2018) contend that when people engage in hero-worship, they are drawing on the stories of heroes to positively inspire their own lives in cognitive and moral ways and begin to internalize those qualities, building a stronger, and more positive self-identity. Such heroic qualities suggest Mac Donald et al. (2018) can lead to more social heroic actions, providing meaning, inspiration, and guidance in the everyday lives of people. ...
Objectives
We aimed to identify, appraise, and synthesise the qualitative literature to develop theory on heroism and paramedic practice.
Hypothesis/research question
What does published literature tell us about heroism and paramedic practice?
Setting
Paramedics and other healthcare workers (HCWs) faced an outpouring of public support for them early in the COVID-19 pandemic which brought into focus the relationship between them and society, where they are portrayed as heroes.
Participants
We conducted a metasynthesis using Evolved Grounded Theory and procedural guidelines of Noblit and Hare to guide analysis. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) guidelines were also applied.
Results
151 papers were retrieved and eleven included in the final sample. Studies were moderate to very low quality, involving a wide range of methodologies and settings; none specifically explored heroism and paramedic practice. The following interrelated themes were constructed on heroism and paramedic practice: (a) Myth, Folk law, and storytelling in heroism and paramedic practice (b) The epic journey of heroism and paramedic practice (c) Heroes and Zeroes: The fluctuating Societal Value in heroism and paramedic practice (d) Politicisation, and objectification in Heroism and Paramedic practice.
Conclusion
Paramedics have long been characterised as heroes, but this may not reflect their everyday experiences. Heroism in paramedic practice can provide scripts for prosocial action, inspiring others, and leading to more social heroic actions. Paramedics may however be ambivalent to such heroism narratives, due to politicisation, and objectification in the media and society. This metasynthesis is only one of many possible constructions of heroism and paramedic practice and is the first point in making sense of and developing theory on heroism and paramedic practice.
Study registration
PROSPERO: CRD42021234851.
... Heroes can be nurtured to help others in need, to care for others compassionately, and to develop the self-confidence to undertake heroic action. In summary, in line with MacDonald et al. (2018), and McNamee and Wesolik (2014), we consider heroism as a learned capacity resulting from the dynamic interaction between specific situations (i.e. call for heroic action) and specific individual attributes (i.e. ...
... Despite the growing interest of the study of heroism in psychology (Franco et al. 2018;Allison et al. 2016a), there is still little theoretical development and little evidence about the development process of heroes, the process of internalization of heroic qualities, and its effectiveness in bringing about social change (MacDonald et al. 2018) (Franco et al. 2018). Public service heroism is often criticized for its conceptual heterogeneity, the multiple perspectives on heroism (objective versus subjective lay perception), forms, and the extent of associated physical and social risk. ...
... The coexistence of these discourses causes a paradoxical situation for healthcare workers, particularly nurses. This normalisation is, perhaps, a legacy of deep-rooted historical and institutional narratives that have traditionally portrayed healthcare professionals as capable of navigating adversity, including patient-induced violence [21]. This study has identified a narrative in which delirious patients cannot be held responsible for their acts since they do not mean to cause harm, and therefore such a situation was not perceived as alarming or frightening, a phenomenon confirmed in other studies and settings [22][23][24]. ...
... The study followed the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki [21]. The Swedish Ethical Review Authority approved the study (2022-03640-01). ...
Background
Conflicts with patients and relatives occur frequently in intensive care units (ICUs), driven by factors that are intensified by critical illness and its treatments. A majority of ICU healthcare professionals have experienced verbal and/or physical violence. There is a need to understand how healthcare professionals in ICUs experience and manage this workplace violence.
Methods
A qualitative descriptive analysis of four hospitals in Sweden was conducted using semi-structured focus-group interviews with ICU healthcare professionals.
Results
A total of 34 participants (14 nurses, 6 physicians and 14 other staff) were interviewed across the four hospitals. The overarching theme: “The paradox of violence in healthcare” illustrated a normalisation of violence in ICU care and indicated a complex association between healthcare professionals regarding violence as an integral aspect of caregiving, while simultaneously identifying themselves as victims of this violence. The healthcare professionals described being poorly prepared and lacking appropriate tools to manage violent situations. The management of violence was therefore mostly based on self-taught skills.
Conclusions
This study contributes to understanding the normalisation of violence in ICU care and gives a possible explanation for its origins. The paradox involves a multifaceted approach that acknowledges and confronts the structural and cultural dimensions of violence in healthcare. Such an approach will lay the foundations for a more sustainable healthcare system.
... Heroes can be nurtured to help others in need, to care for others compassionately, and to develop the self-confidence to undertake heroic action. In summary, in line with MacDonald et al. (2018), and McNamee and Wesolik (2014), we consider heroism as a learned capacity resulting from the dynamic interaction between specific situations (i.e. call for heroic action) and specific individual attributes (i.e. ...
... Despite the growing interest of the study of heroism in psychology (Franco et al. 2018;Allison et al. 2016a), there is still little theoretical development and little evidence about the development process of heroes, the process of internalization of heroic qualities, and its effectiveness in bringing about social change (MacDonald et al. 2018) (Franco et al. 2018). Public service heroism is often criticized for its conceptual heterogeneity, the multiple perspectives on heroism (objective versus subjective lay perception), forms, and the extent of associated physical and social risk. ...
... Nonetheless, we found that significant events such as war, earthquake, and the COVID-19 pandemic can affect public attitude and social context towards nursing. Two previous studies also reported significant improvements in public attitude towards nursing after wars [28,29]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world also admired nurses, appreciated their practice, and showed love for them [30], which resulted in positive feelings such as proud and honor among nurses [31]. ...
Background
Love of the profession has significant relationship with nurses’ job motivation and care quality. However, there is limited information about organizational and environmental factors affecting love of the profession among nurses.
Aim
This study aimed at exploring nurses’ experiences of the role of organizational and environmental factors in the development of love of the profession.
Methods
This qualitative study was conducted in 2020–2021 using the conventional content analysis approach. Participants were Fifteen Iranian nurses with deep love of the profession, nursing instructors, and nursing managers purposefully selected from different healthcare and academic settings in seven large cities of Iran. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews and were analyzed via the conventional content analysis method proposed by Graneheim and Lundman.
Results
Organizational and environmental factors affecting the development of love of the profession were grouped into three main categories: The social context of the profession (with two subcategories), family support (with two subcategories), and organizational health (with four subcategories). Subcategories were respectively historical context of the profession, the evolving context, emotional family support, instrumental family support, quality of interpersonal relationships in the organization, level of organizational justice, level of authority delegation to nurses, and level of organizational support.
Conclusion
Different organizational and environmental factors can affect nurses’ love of the profession development. Improving public image of nursing, providing nurses with stronger support, improving organizational climate, and strengthening interpersonal relationships in healthcare settings are recommended to develop nurses’ Love of the profession.
... o que pode causar sofrimento mental nos trabalhadores de saúde(16) . Paradoxalmente, com a evolução da pandemia e a intensa cobertura jornalística do serviço dos trabalhadores de saúde, foram veiculadas matérias identificando os profissionais como heróis de uma guerra contra o vírus SARS-CoV-2.Nas profissões consideradas altruístas, como as dos trabalhadores de saúde, sejam profissionais médicos ou de enfermagem, o heroísmo assume significado de ápice do profissional autorrealizado(23) . Assim, a compreensão da pandemia, o encorajamento, o senso de envolvimento, a autorrealização profissional e a coragem para manterem-se firmes no enfrentamento vêm sendo observadas nos trabalhadores de saúde(24) . ...
Objective:
to evaluate distress and pleasure indicators in health care workers on the front line of care for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Method:
an exploratory, analytical and cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach. The studied sample consisted of 437 health professionals invited by electronic means, who answered the questionnaire on sociodemographic information, occupational aspects and clinical conditions. Distress and pleasure at work were considered as outcomes, which were analyzed with multinomial logistic regression regarding the associated independent variables.
Results:
Most of the participants were female (71.0%), nurses (55.6%), with a weekly working shift of 40 hours or more (75.8%); 61.6% of the participants suffered from mental distress. The psychosocial characteristics of high-strain work and low social support were reported by 23.8% and 52.9% of the participants, respectively. In the multiple analysis, distress and lack of pleasure at work were associated with high job strain, low support from co-workers and mental distress. The profession is also associated with distress at work.
Conclusion:
distress and lack of pleasure at work are associated with occupational characteristics and mental strain among health care workers in the COVID-19 scenario.
... A study carried out with workers in the hemodialysis service related distress to the lack of freedom of expression and recognition at work, with the need for interventions to avoid harms to the workers' health (21) . In professions considered altruistic, such as those of health care workers, whether medical or nursing professionals, heroism assumes the meaning of the apex of the self-fulfilled professional (23) . Thus, understanding the pandemic, encouragement, a sense of involvement, professional self-fulfillment and the courage to stand firm in the face of confrontation have been observed in health care workers (24) . ...
Objective: to evaluate distress and pleasure indicators in health care workers on the front line of care for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases. Method: an exploratory, analytical and crosssectional study with a quantitative approach. The studied sample consisted of 437 health professionals invited by electronic means, who answered the questionnaire on sociodemographic information, occupational aspects and clinical conditions. Distress and pleasure at work were considered as outcomes, which were analyzed with multinomial logistic regression regarding the associated independent variables. Results: Most of the participants were female (71.0%), nurses (55.6%), with a weekly working shift of 40 hours or more (75.8%); 61.6% of the participants suffered from mental distress. The psychosocial characteristics of high-strain work and low social support were reported by 23.8% and 52.9% of the participants, respectively. In the multiple analysis, distress and lack of pleasure at work were associated with high job strain, low support from coworkers
and mental distress. The profession is also associated with distress at work. Conclusion: distress and lack of pleasure at work are associated with occupational characteristics and mental strain among health care workers in the COVID-19 scenario.
... Las grandes diferencias en lo que respecta a la formación y actuación de los profesionales de enfermería en los servicios de salud marca el perfil heterogéneo de una fuerza de trabajo significativa, que muchas veces no distingue las diferencias técnicas, dado que diferentes categorías profesionales, como auxiliares y técnicos en enfermería, realizan el mismo trabajo y habitualmente no reciben una remuneración acorde al nivel de educación profesional(22) .La actual crisis política, económica y social brasileña, combinada con la información sistemática y contradictoria del gobierno brasileño y de los medios de comunicación sobre la situación de la evolución de la pandemia, las medidas de prevención y tratamiento, además de la situación de los hospitales brasileños, aumentan la sensación de inseguridad, incertidumbre y descontrol, que pueden causar sufrimiento mental en los trabajadores de la salud(16) . Paradójicamente, con la evolución de la pandemia y la intensa cobertura periodística del servicio sanitario, se publicaron artículos que identificaban a los profesionales como héroes de una guerra contra el virus SARS-CoV-2.En profesiones consideradas altruistas, como las de los trabajadores de la salud, ya sean profesionales médicos o de enfermería, el heroísmo significa la cumbre del profesional autorrealizado(23) . Por lo tanto, se ha observado en los trabajadores de la salud ánimo, espíritu de participación, autorrealización profesional y coraje para mantenerse firme ante la pandemia(24) . ...
Objetivo: evaluar indicadores de sufrimiento y placer en trabajadores de la salud en la primera línea de atención de casos sospechosos o confirmados de COVID-19. Método: estudio exploratorio, analítico, transversal con enfoque cuantitativo. La muestra estudiada estuvo conformada por 437 profesionales de la salud invitados por medios electrónicos, que respondieron el cuestionario sobre información sociodemográfica, aspectos ocupacionales y condiciones clínicas. Se consideraron como resultados el sufrimiento y el placer en el trabajo, que fueron analizados con regresión logística multinomial en cuanto
a las variables independientes asociadas. Resultados: la mayoría de los participantes era de sexo femenino (71,0%), enfermera (55,6%), tenía una jornada laboral semanal de 40 horas o más (75,8%); el 61,6% de los participantes presentaban sufrimiento mental. En cuanto a las características psicosociales del trabajo, los participantes lo consideraron de alta exigencia y bajo apoyo social, 23,8% y 52,9% respectivamente. En el análisis múltiple, la angustia y la falta de placer en el trabajo se asociaron con una alta exigencia laboral,
poco apoyo de los compañeros de trabajo y sufrimiento mental. La profesión también está asociada al sufrimiento en el trabajo. Conclusión: el sufrimiento y la falta de placer en el trabajo se asocian con características ocupacionales y el agotamiento mental en los
trabajadores de la salud en el escenario del COVID-19.
... Psychological programs to relieve anxiety and fear such as mental exercises and gradual desensitization should be designed to intervene in psychological reactions and risk perceptions. Furthermore, although nurses are praised for their heroic actions during the COVID-19 pandemic to shoulder their responsibilities and spare no efforts to guard public health, which are undoubtedly appreciated, we must be cautious that heroic actionsvoluntary prosocial actions associated with an acknowledged degree of personal risk, transcend the duty of nurses, and aggregate their psychosocial risks (MacDonald et al., 2018). After the outbreak of COVID-19, more discussions centered around the risk and obligation of 'duty of care', or 'duty to treat', weighing the risks against their duties (WHO, 2020b). ...
Background
Risk perception among nurses after the COVID-19 pandemic is a crucial factor affecting their attitudes and willingness to work in clinics. Those with poor psychological status could perceive risks sensitively as fears or threats that are discouraging. This article aimed to determine whether psychological outcomes, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and insomnia, following the COVID-19 pandemic were differentially related to the risk perceptions of nurses working in clinics and increased perceived risk.
Method
The participants were 668 nurse clinicians from five local hospitals. Risk perceptions and psychological outcomes were measured by adapted questionnaires via the Internet. Latent profile analysis (LPA) identified subgroups of individuals who showed similar profiles regarding the perceived risks in nursing. Multinomial regression and probit regression were used to examine the extent to which sociodemographic and psychological outcomes predicted class membership.
Results
LPA revealed four classes: groups with low-, mild-, moderate-, and high-level risk perceptions. Membership of the high-level risk perception class was predicted by the severity of psychological outcomes. Anxiety significantly accounted for a moderate increase in risk perceptions, while the symptoms of insomnia, depression, and PTSD accelerated the increase to the high level of risk perception class.
Conclusions
By classifying groups of nurse clinicians sharing similar profiles regarding risk perceptions and then exploring associated predictors, this study shows the psychological outcomes after COVID-19 significantly impacted pandemic-associated risk perceptions and suggests intervening in nurses' psychological outcomes while simultaneously focusing on work-related worries is important following the outbreak of COVID-19.
... Two previous studies also reported signi cant improvements in public attitude towards nursing after wars (28, 29). During the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world also admired nurses, appreciated their practice, and showed love for them (30), which resulted in positive feelings such as proud and honor among nurses (31). ...
Background
Love of the profession has significant relationship with nurses’ job motivation and care quality. However, there is limited information about organizational and environmental factors affecting LOP among nurses.
Aim
This study aimed at exploring nurses’ experiences of the role of organizational and environmental factors in the development of Love of the profession.
Methods
This qualitative study was conducted in 2020–2021 using the conventional content analysis approach. Participants were Fifteen Iranian nurses with deep Love of the profession, nursing instructors, and nursing managers purposefully selected from different healthcare and academic settings in seven large cities of Iran. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews and were analyzed via the conventional content analysis method proposed by Graneheim and Lundman.
Results
Organizational and environmental factors affecting the development of Love of the profession were grouped into three main categories, The social context of the profession (with two subcategories), family support (with two subcategories), and organizational health (with four subcategories). Subcategories were respectively historical context of the profession, the evolving context, emotional family support, instrumental family support, quality of interpersonal relationships in the organization, level of organizational justice, level of authority delegation to nurses, and level of organizational support.
Conclusions
Different organizational and environmental factors can affect nurses’ Love of the profession development. Improving public image of nursing, providing nurses with stronger support, improving organizational climate, and strengthening interpersonal relationships in healthcare settings are recommended to develop nurses’ Love of the profession.
... Heroes usually have significant roles in boosting others' morale, promoting ethical practice, and protecting people against threats [40]. Similarly, nurses who attend war zones to save victims' lives are considered to be heroes, and become role models for others [41]. Nurses' courage at war is associated with a positive public image of nursing, and stimulates others' desire to enter nursing [42]. ...
As a professional value, the love of the profession can significantly affect nurses’ professional practice, behaviors and commitment. Many different factors can affect the love of the profession. The exploration of nurses’ experiences of these factors can provide valuable data for development of the love of the profession. The aim of this study was to explore nurses’ perceptions of the factors contributing to the development of the love of the profession. This qualitative study was conducted in 2020–2021 using the conventional content analysis approach. The participants were thirteen nurses with different organizational positions purposively recruited from different settings in Iran. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews, and were analyzed via the conventional content analysis approach proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. The factors contributing to the development of the love of the profession were categorized into four main categories, namely the public perception of the profession (with three subcategories), educational variables (with two subcategories), the characteristics of the profession (with four subcategories), and nurses’ self-evaluation (with three subcategories). The love of the profession is affected by a wide range of personal, educational, professional and social factors. The manipulation of these factors would help to develop nurses’ and nursing students’ love of the profession, and encourage people to choose nursing as a career.
... The behavior of the students in this sample, supports the view that nurses are sometimes seen as everyday heroes. They often act altruistically and selflessly helping people in need, reporting failures, despite sometimes risking their own health, wellbeing and/or position (Macdonald et al., 2018). The narratives discussed clearly illustrate how even novice nurses are driven by an ethical imperative to speak up when they witness poor care. ...
Aim
The two aims of this study were, first, to explore nursing students’ experiences and perspectives of reporting poor care and second, examine the process by which they raised concerns.
Background
The nursing literature is replete with studies which explore nursing students’ experiences of clinical placement. However only a small number explore students experiences of challenging poor care and how this is enacted in the practice setting.
Setting and participants
Fourteen nursing students from undergraduate pre-registration nursing programmes across three universities, two in the united kingdom (uk) and one in australia.
Design and analysis
This paper reports findings from narrative interviews about students’ clinical experiences of reporting poor care. Data were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a constant comparison approach. Emerging themes were identified, discussed and verified by the researchers.
Results
Four montages from the narratives highlight the overarching themes: bullying, patient advocacy, lack of empathy and poor care. They demonstrate how, driven by an ethical imperative, students speak up when they witness poor care despite the difficulties of doing so: in some cases, the students in this study were prepared to continue speaking out even when initial concerns were dismissed.
Conclusion
Both practice and university teams have a responsibility to support students’ development as ethical and courageous practitioners, able to recognise when care falls below an acceptable standard.
... Profissionais de saúde estão sendo reconhecidos como "heróis" nessa situação da pandemia de COVID-19, que se assemelha a uma situação de guerra onde as tomadas de decisão precisam ser rápidas e eficientes; e, muitas vezes, esses profissionais têm pouco tempo para se organizar, para planejar, ficando muito vulneráveis à contaminação e podendo inclusive chegar ao óbito. O heroísmo, segundo o estudo de revisão (35) , exemplifica o ápice de um profissional autorrealizado, sendo esse sentimento comum em profissões consideradas altruístas. ...
Objective:
to map the evidence on mental health interventions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method:
this scoping review was carried out in the MEDLINE/PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Science Direct databases and in the medRxiv, bioRxiv, and PsyArXiv preprints servers using the descriptors “Covid-19”, “coronavirus infection”, “coronavirus”, “2019-nCoV”, “2019 novel coronavirus disease”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “health personnel”, “general public”, and “mental health”.
Results:
eight articles were selected and categorized into mental health interventions for the population, among which mental health interventions were for people diagnosed with suspicion/confirmed COVID-19 and mental health interventions for health professionals.
Conclusion:
telemonitoring, virtual games and strategies focused on social support and muscle relaxation techniques, characterized as non-pharmacological and low-cost, were shown as interventions, which, since they are effective, need to be encouraged and included in mental health care practices.
... The few studies on the nurse as hero focus on the positive effects of this discourse on enhancing the visibility and moral fortitude of the profession. MacDonald et al. (2018) suggested that the sharing of stories of nurse heroes, which are primarily enacted in everyday front-line practice, may encourage other nurses to "internalize heroic attributes" (p. 139), bolster professional self-identity, and foster professional activism. ...
Background
Nurses have been labelled “heroes” by politicians, the mass media, and the general public to describe their commitment to providing front-line care to people with COVID-19, despite the risks of exposure and lack of clinical resources. Few studies have examined the implications of the hero discourse to nurses’ professional, social, and political identities.
Objective
To critically examine the effects of the hero discourse on nurses who are contending with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and to consider the political, social, cultural, and professional impact of this discourse on nursing work.
Methods
A poststructural discourse analysis, employing the theoretical ideas of truth, power, knowledge, subjectivity, and normalization, was conducted to explore the mass media's constructions of nurse as hero in the contexts of COVID-19. Media electronic databases were searched between March 1, 2020 to August 1, 2020 to locate newspaper and magazine articles, corporate advertisements, videos, social media postings, and institutional/corporate websites.
Setting
Data sources included English language media accounts that originated from Canada, the USA, and the UK.
Results
Three main elements of the hero discourse include: 1. Nurses as a “necessary sacrifice” - portraying nurses as selfless, sacrificing, and outstanding moral subjects for practicing on the front-line without adequate protective gear and other clinical resources; 2. Nurses as “model citizens” – positioning nurses as compliant, hardworking, and obedient subjects in contrast to harmful individuals and groups that ignore or resist COVID-19 public health measures. 3. Heroism itself as the reward for nurses that characterizes hero worship as a fitting reward for nurses who were unappreciated pre-pandemic, as opposed to supporting long-term policy change, and highlights how heroism reconfigures nursing work from the mundane and ordinary to the exciting and impactful.
Conclusions
The hero discourse is not a neutral expression of appreciation and sentimentality, but rather a tool employed to accomplish multiple aims such as the normalization of nurses’ exposure to risk, the enforcement of model citizenship, and the preservation of existing power relationships that limit the ability of front-line nurses to determine the conditions of their work. Our study has implications for approaching the collective political response of nursing in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and formalizing the ongoing emotional, psychological, ethical, and practice supports of nurses as the pandemic continues.
... The public want to hear from nurses and we should not be silent. As we have argued elsewhere, heroism is about taking courageous action in the face of danger (MacDonald et al., 2018). Its antithesis is to be passive. ...
... Clearly, it takes courage for anyone to face a pandemic, but health professionals around the world provide health care every day. While MacDonald, De Zylva, McAllister, and Brien (2018) argued for the inclusion of "heroism training" in undergraduate nursing, we disagree. The requirement of a hero suggests that one must act outside the norm, or protect and defend others, and goes beyond advocacy (an essential nursing role). ...
... Health professionals are being recognized as "heroes" in this situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resembles a war situation where decision-making needs to be quick and efficient; many times, these professionals have little time to organize themselves, to plan, becoming very vulnerable to contamination and even reaching death. Heroism, according to this review study (35) , exemplifies the peak of a self-fulfilled professional, this feeling being common in professions considered altruistic. ...
Objetivo: mapear as evidências sobre intervenções em saúde mental implementadas durante a pandemia da COVID-19. Método: scoping review realizada nas bases de dados MEDLINE/PubMed, SCOPUS, Web Of Science, PsycINFO e Science Direct e nos servidores de preprints medRxiv, bioRxiv e PsyArXiv, usando os descritores “COVID-19”, “coronavirus infection”, “coronavirus”, “2019-nCoV”, “2019 novel coronavirus disease”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “health personnel”, “general public” e “mental health”. Resultados: Oito artigos foram selecionados e categorizados em: intervenções em saúde mental à população, dentre as quais intervenções em saúde mental às pessoas com diagnóstico de suspeita/confirmado de COVID-19 e intervenções em saúde mental aos profissionais de saúde. Conclusão: evidenciou-se como intervenções o telemonitoramento, jogos virtuais e estratégias focalizadas no suporte social e em técnicas de relaxamento muscular, caracterizadas como não farmacológicas e de baixo custo, que por mostrarem-se eficazes, precisam ser incentivadas e incluídas em práticas de atenção à saúde mental.
... (Madsen, McAllister, Godden, Greenhill, & Reed, 2009, p. 9) The importance of teaching nursing history has also been echoed in studies in the United States (Alpers, Jarrell, & Wotring, 2011; American Association for the History of Nursing, 2001). When nursing history is taught, or discussed in nursing programs, it tends to focus on such famed and iconic fi gures such as Florence Nightingale, setting such heroic individuals and their actions apart from the "ordinary" nurses who provide day-to-day care today (MacDonald, De Zylva, McAllister, & Brien, 2018). A careful consideration of the autobiographies of some historic nursing leaders reveals, however, that-in many ways-these nurses were in fact also quite ordinary individuals. ...
... Watson identifies the relationship as transpersonal, meaning the caring moments are a concept shared and felt between two people (Sitzman & Watson, 2018). However, an NEs' dedication to the profession and the individuals they serve often trump personal needs (MacDonald, De Zylva, McAllister, & Brien, 2018). Therefore, Watson recognizes that to practice equanimity or develop an inner balance and peace, most practitioners require a deep level of self-transformation and self-knowledge especially when in the midst of negative space (Sitzman & Watson, 2018). ...
Replenishing and sustaining the number of registered nurses needed to meet the demands of the United States healthcare system is an increasing struggle for nursing schools across the country. The nurse educator shortage has resulted in nursing schools being filled to capacity, requiring educators to work extended hours in understaffed environments. Although nurse educators are deeply committed to the students they mentor and serve, the increasing demands of the multifaceted role may lead to symptoms of compassion fatigue. The problem under investigation in this study is that nurse educators may be leaving their positions in academia due to high levels of compassion fatigue and lack of resilience. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional regression study was to contribute to Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring by describing and
predicting nurse educators’ level of compassion fatigue and the degree of resilience on the intent-to-stay in academia. After surveying 146 nurse educators using the Professional Quality of Life Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Price Scale on Intent to Stay, results indicated compassion fatigue exists and predicts nurse educator organizational commitment. Watson’s theory provides one explanation that nurse educators have the ability to process both positive and negative emotions and transform negativity into positive expression to sustain working an overstressed environment. The alternative explanation is the decision to stay may be temporary. Providing evidence that compassion fatigue exists among nurse educators exposes a sensitive and silent issue that obligates nursing leaders to raise awareness and embrace resilience training for the purpose of strengthening and supporting the personal well-being of nurse educators,
perhaps decreasing the likelihood of faculty leaving their positions or the field of academia altogether.
Des « héros » et des « anges gardiens ». Au cours des premières semaines de la pandémie de COVID‑19 au Québec, ces termes ont été largement utilisés par les autorités gouvernementales pour qualifier le personnel de la santé . Face à la nouveauté et aux risques encore inconnus du virus, le discours officiel à l’égard des « anges gardiens » et des « héros » s’inscrit alors dans une rhétorique martiale afin de reconnaître les efforts du personnel de la santé et l’encourager à oeuvrer en première ligne. Sur le terrain, les travailleur·euses de la santé ne vivent toutefois pas l’urgence sanitaire de la même manière. Les personnes occupant les emplois au bas de la hiérarchie du réseau de la santé, comme les préposé·es aux bénéficiaires (PAB), sont plus exposées aux risques du virus, notamment en raison de manque d’équipement de protection. Un tel contexte nous mène à nous questionner sur la place accordée aux préposé·es aux bénéficiaires par les instances gouvernementales dans leurs discours élogieux à l’égard des « anges gardiens » et des « héros ». Notre étude vise à mettre en lumière l’articulation entre ces métaphores et la rhétorique guerrière mobilisée par les autorités gouvernementales. Nous avons réalisé une analyse qualitative thématique des conférences de presse quotidiennes du gouvernement et de l’Institut national de santé publique du Québec pendant les quatre premières semaines de la pandémie. Nos résultats indiquent que les métaphores d’« ange gardien » et de « héros » sont des constructions politiques qui se structurent autour d’une rhétorique martiale stratégiquement déployée par le gouvernement du Québec pour communiquer l’urgence de la crise sanitaire, laquelle contribue à reproduire les inégalités de classe et de genre au sein du personnel de soin. S’inscrivant dans un contexte social où les inégalités existaient bien avant la pandémie du COVID‑19, l’urgence sanitaire a exacerbé les inégalités professionnelles, alors que les personnes occupant les postes au bas de l’échelle hiérarchique, comme les PAB, ont été les plus affectées.
This chapter illuminates how the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine used the WeChat social media platform and mobile phone technologies as a mode of mobile health during the initial COVID-19 period from January 2020 through January 2021. The chapter utilises interviews conducted with the hospital’s doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who went to Hubei province to work in the temporary treatment centres; insights from one of the authors, who is a member of the Hospital’s publicity department; and discourse analysis of the hospital’s official microblog. WeChat and mobile phones were indispensable technologies that were both the primary information delivery systems to the public and primary communication systems at Hubei’s temporary treatment centres. These technologies contributed to stronger ties between medical staff and their colleagues and between medical staff and their patients through the chat and video chat functions. The microblog also provided a platform for the hospital to inform the local population about the viral epidemic, how the government and the hospital reacted to the situation, and how the public could protect themselves. The official WeChat account’s Wisdom Hospital programme was used to computerise several hospital services, contributing to safer contactless hospital experiences. The counter-epidemic efforts were labelled as a war on the virus and the hospital staff as warrior heroes in white. Mobile technologies and the Hospital’s WeChat account positively impacted the safety of the local and Hubei province populations and the hospital and the staff’s response to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Purpose:
This study was conducted to assess public awareness and policy challenges faced by practicing nurses.
Methods:
After collecting nurse-related news articles published before and after 'the Thanks to You Challenge' campaign (between December 31, 2019, and July 15, 2020), keywords were extracted via preprocessing. A three-step method keyword analysis, latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling, and keyword network analysis was used to examine the text and the structure of the selected news articles.
Results:
Top 30 keywords with similar occurrences were collected before and after the campaign. The five dominant topics before the campaign were: pandemic, infection of medical staff, local transmission, medical resources, and return of overseas Koreans. After the campaign, the topics 'infection of medical staff' and 'return of overseas Koreans' disappeared, but 'the Thanks to You Challenge' emerged as a dominant topic. A keyword network analysis revealed that the word of nurse was linked with keywords like thanks and campaign, through the word of sacrifice. These words formed interrelated domains of 'the Thanks to You Challenge' topic.
Conclusion:
The findings of this study can provide useful information for understanding various issues and social perspectives on COVID-19 nursing. The major themes of news reports lagged behind the real problems faced by nurses in COVID-19 crisis. While the press tends to focus on heroism and whole society, issues and policies mutually beneficial to public and nursing need to be further explored and enhanced by nurses.
Aim
To explore how the media and socially established hero narrative, affected the nursing staff who worked in the frontline during the first round of the COVID19‐pandemic.
Background
During the COVID19‐pandemic, both media, politicians and the public have supported and cheered on the frontline healthcare workers around the world. We have found the hero narrative to be potentially problematic for both nurses and other healthcare workers. This paper presents an analysis and discussion of the consequences of being proclaimed a hero.
Design
Hospital ethnography including fieldwork and focus groups.
Method
Empirical data was collected in a newly opened COVID19‐ward in a university hospital in the urban site of Copenhagen, Denmark. Fieldwork was performed from April until the ward closed in the end of May 2020. Succeeding focus group interviews with nursing staff who worked in the COVID19‐ward were conducted in June 2020. The data were abductively analysed.
Results
The nursing staff rejected the hero narrative in ways that show how the hero narrative leads to predefined characteristics, ideas of being invincible and self‐sacrificing, knowingly and willingly working in risk, transcending duties and imbodying a boundless identity. Being proclaimed as a hero inhibits important discussions of rights and boundaries.
Conclusion
The hero narrative strips the responsibility of the politicians and imposes it onto the hospitals and the individual heroic health care worker.
Impact
It is our agenda to show how the hero narrative detaches the connection between the politicians, society and healthcare system despite being a political apparatus. When reassessing contingency plans, it is important to incorporate the experiences from the health care workers and include their rights and boundaries. Finally, we urge the media to cover a long‐lasting pandemic without having the hero narrative as the reigning filter.
The radical entry of heroism research into scientific inquiry presents interesting challenges and possibilities for the study of heroism and the human condition more broadly. This ‘final frontier’ of the enduring phenomenon of heroism stands to offer remarkable, unprecedented, and controversial advances in our understanding of heroic and human behaviour. Is a genetic basis for heroism a real possibility? If so, what would its impacts be? Advances in genomics and increased interest in the fields of epigenetics and neuroplasticity might hold the key to its discovery. This article considers some of the leading emerging research in global health genomics and speculations in the scientific study of heroism, and its potential interrelationship with genetic and epigenetic well-being.
Heroism as an expression of self-actualization and a pinnacle social state is of fundamental interest to humanistic psychology and the field more broadly. This review places the growing discussion on heroic action in a humanistic perspective, as heroism aligns with ethical self-actualization in its highest form, personal meaning making, and social good, and can also involve profound existential costs. This review is organized in four major sections: First, the historical and philosophical underpinnings of heroism are examined, moving from ancient Greco-Roman perspectives, to more modern interpretations of Continental philosophy, and to Freud and Le Bon. Second, the article summarizes in detail a renaissance of interest in the psychology of heroism that began in the early 2000s, moving from a modern re-theorizing of heroism toward empirical exploration. This renewal of interest is described as six overlapping phases: theory building and exploration of operational definitions of heroism, taxonometric approaches to heroic figures, implicit theories of heroism, social ascription of heroic status, social influence of heroes, and internal motivations for heroic action. Third, key methodological challenges in studying heroism are discussed. Finally, the renewed interest in heroism is considered as a social movement involving not just researchers but also the broader public.
Heroes are not born; they’re made. This article examines the commonalities in the backgrounds of people who take heroic action on behalf of others to theorize the ways in which our society can encourage citizens to prepare themselves to act heroically. In looking closely at a variety of people who have acted heroically, in a single moment or over time, we argue they have at least four crucial commonalities: They imagined situations where help was needed and considered how they would act; they had an expansive sense of empathy, not simply with those who might be considered “like them” but also those who might be thought of as “other” in some decisive respect; they regularly took action to help people, often in small ways; and they had some experience or skill that made them confident about undertaking the heroic action in question.
What do we know about burnout, and what can we do about it? This article will provide an overview of what has been learned from current research on burnout, and what are the implications of the key themes that have emerged. One theme involves the critical significance of the social environment in health care settings. A second theme is the challenge of how to take what we know, and apply it to what we can do about burnout. What we need are new ideas about potential interventions, and clear evidence of their effectiveness. One example of this perspective addresses burnout by improving the balance of civil, respectful social encounters occurring during a workday. Research has demonstrated that not only can civility be increased at work but that doing so leads to an enduring reduction in burnout among health care providers. Lessons learned from this extensive research form the basis of recommendations for medical education. Specifically, the effectiveness of both the academic content and supervised practice would be enhanced by giving a greater emphasis to the social dynamics of healthcare teams. This perspective can help new physicians in avoiding potential pitfalls and recovering from unavoidable strains.
The psychological investigation of heroism is relatively new. At this stage, inductive methods can shed light on its main aspects. Therefore, we examined the social representations of Hero and Everyday Hero by collecting word associations from two separate representative samples in Hungary. We constructed two networks from these word associations. The results showed that the social representation of Hero is more centralized and it cannot be divided into smaller units. The network of Everyday Hero is divided into five units and the significance moves from abstract hero characteristics to concrete social roles and occupations exhibiting pro-social values. We also created networks from the common associations of Hero and Everyday Hero. The structures of these networks showed a moderate similarity and the connections are more balanced in case of Everyday Hero. While heroism in general can be the source of inspiration, the promotion of everyday heroism can be more successful in encouraging ordinary people to recognize their own potential for heroic behavior.
Circumstances can force almost anyone to be a bystander to evil, but they can also bring out our own inner hero. Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo show how we’re all capable of everyday heroism.
It is early Saturday morning: a day for heroes. Bogged down with various costumes, capes and action figures, young Nikoli bounds downstairs to catch reruns of Teen Titans. He puts his newly acquired reading skills to work, studying comic books and recreating the adventures therein. Nikoli imagines himself as the hero in his comics, defeating villains and saving victims, imitating the poses and catchphrases in the mirror. Although children like Nikoli will never gain super strength or the ability to fly, the superheroes they emulate in play are examples of people they can aspire to be. They don't even have to be fictional heroes-if we widen the scope of children's superheroes to include those that address real-life issues, or even real-life heroes who have made breakthroughs in fields such as public health, the impact could be tremendous. Imagine a world where Superman is mentioned in the same breath as Ignaz Semmelweis, the man who revolutionized sanitation in health care by demonstrating that hand washing prevents the spread of infection. Children who idolize the champions of health care could someday grow up to be heroes themselves, fighting epidemics and saving lives through education, treatment and research. Their wildest fantasies could become a reality.
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
There has been increasing interest in the culture of healthcare in the light of the two reports by Robert Francis into the care at Mid Staffordshire. This editorial encourages a comprehensive exploration of the conditions that promote a benign caring culture and make outbreaks of cruel neglect and abuse of patients less likely. Creating and sustaining such a culture is dependent on being honest and realistic about the forces that threaten to undermine it. The editorial argues that being able to confidently articulate the positive values that should define healthcare culture is particularly important at this time. The case is made for a conscious focus on the concept of intelligent kindness.
Declaring and thinking about heroes are common human preoccupations but surprisingly aspects of heroism that reinforce these behaviors are not well-understood. In four thematically consistent studies, we attempt to identify lay perspectives about the psychological functions served by heroes. In Study 1, participants (n = 189) freely generated open-ended descriptions of hero functions, which were then sorted by independent coders into 14 categories (e.g., instill hope, guide others). In Study 2, in an attempt to identify the most important functions associated with heroes, participants (n = 249) rated how each function corresponded with their personal views about heroes. Results from a confirmatory factor analysis suggested that a three-factor model of hero functions fit the data well: participants thought that heroes enhanced the lives of others, promoted morals, and protected individuals from threats. In Study 3 (n = 242), participants rated heroes as more likely to fulfill a protecting function than either leaders or role models. In Studies 4A (n = 38) and 4B (n = 102), participants indicated that thinking about a hero (relative to a leader or an acquaintance) during psychological threat fulfilled personal enhancement, moral modeling, and protection needs. In all, these findings provide an empirical basis to spur additional research about the social and psychological functions that heroes offer.
Heroes are ubiquitous in literature and popular discourse, yet little is known about cognitive representations of heroes. We examined lay conceptions of heroes using a prototype approach, compared heroes with other persons of influence, and studied how individuals use hero features to identify heroes. In Study 1, participants (N = 189) generated open-ended descriptions of heroes, which were sorted by independent coders into 26 meaningful categories. In Study 2, participants (N = 365) rated the centrality of these features, and subsequently classified each feature as either central (e.g., brave, moral integrity) or peripheral (e.g., humble, proactive). In a reaction time (RT) paradigm, participants in Study 3 (N = 33) identified central features of heroes faster than peripheral features. In Study 4, participants (N = 25) remembered more central hero features than peripheral features in a surprise recall task. In Study 5 (N = 89), participants most strongly identified a hero when the target was described with central features (vs. peripheral or neutral features). In Studies 6 (N = 212) and 7 (N = 307), participants’ ratings evidenced that the prototypical features of heroes did not fit conceptually as well for role models and leaders. In all, these studies contribute new ideas to existing knowledge about heroes, and contribute to a shared understanding of what a hero means to people. Our research is thus an important step in refining heroism into a scientific concept. The notion of the prototypical features of heroes provides a basis for future hero research and intervention.
People use the term hero frequently in our culture, and most people can easily name several heroes. Our research explores how people think about heroes as well as the determinants of heroic behavior. People’s heroes may be real-world figures or fictional characters. They are thought to be competent enough to achieve at a high level, moral enough to do the right thing in difficult situations, or both. People’s conceptions of heroes reflect both schemas about what heroes are like and narrative structures about how they act. We consider the possibility that images of heroes and common hero narratives reflect evolutionarily-based archetypes. Given that typical conceptions of heroes include high levels of competence and morality, we consider aspects of self, including self-efficacy, self-affirmation, self-theories of intelligence, self-guides, and self-control that enable people to achieve at high levels and to act morally, even when doing so is difficult. We discuss research showing that people’s needs for heroes prepare them to perceive struggle and to root for underdogs. Work on a death-positivity bias and admiration for martyrs illustrates the centrality of self-sacrifice in hero schemas and the perceptions of heroes. Finally we propose a taxonomy of heroes based on various dimensions of influence such as strength, duration, direction, exposure, and origins. The subtypes of heroes in our taxonomy are Transforming, Transfigured, Traditional, Transparent, Transposed, Tragic, Transitional, Transitory and Trending. In addition, we consider a Transcendent Hero category, referring to heroes who affect their admirers in ways that combine the influences of other types.
Discovering what leads some to act heroically to help another can help parents and teachers nurture helping behavior, even heroic helping, and may aid in countering its antithesis, bullying, in today’s youth. This study’s purpose was to investigate the influence of parents on heroic helping and the critical factors in their influence: their teaching of values, their empathy, their modeling of helping others, their expectations of their children to help others. Carnegie Heroes were interviewed to learn about their parents’ influence on their heroic helping. These heroes have been identified by the Carnegie Hero Commission as individuals who have voluntarily risked or sacrificed their life for others’ benefit (Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 2002). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
We propose that leadership is uniquely contextualized when confronting dangerous contexts such that specific causations and contingencies occur that are not present in non-dangerous contexts. Yet we know very little about how such leadership operates and what constitutes effective leadership for such dangerous contexts. To guide future research, we take a multilevel and systems approach to leadership and suggest important areas for future research of leadership in dangerous contexts at the micro-, meso-, and macrolevels.
In the present chapter, we seek to define, classify and characterize the complex construct of moral courage. Moral courage
is defined as brave behavior accompanied by anger and indignation which intends to enforce societal and ethical norms without
considering one’s own social costs. Especially social costs (i.e., negative social consequences) distinguish moral courage
from other prosocial behaviors like helping behavior. Furthermore, similarities between moral courage and heroism as well
as between moral courage and social control are discussed. We also present determinants which promote or inhibit morally courageous
behavior followed by a model for moral courage that tries to combine these determinants. Finally, moral courage trainings
are shortly discussed as a possibility to foster moral courage in our society.
Heroism represents the ideal of citizens transforming civic virtue into the highest form of civic action, accepting either physical peril or social sacrifice. While implicit theories of heroism abound, surprisingly little theoretical or empirical work has been done to better understand the phenomenon. Toward this goal, we summarize our efforts to systematically develop a taxonomy of heroic subtypes as a starting point for theory building. Next we explore three apparent paradoxes that surround heroism—the dueling impulses to elevate and negate heroic actors; the contrast between the public ascription of heroic status versus the interior decision to act heroically; and apparent similarities between altruism, bystander intervention and heroism that mask important differences between these phenomena. We assert that these seeming contradictions point to an unrecognized relationship between insufficient justification and the ascription of heroic status, providing more explanatory power than risk-type alone. The results of an empirical study are briefly presented to provide preliminary support to these arguments. Finally, several areas for future research and theoretical activity are briefly considered. These include the possibility that extension neglect may play a central role in public's view of nonprototypical heroes; a critique of the positive psychology view that heroism is always a virtuous, prosocial activity; problems associated with retrospective study of heroes; the suggestion that injury or death (particularly in social sacrifice heroes) serves to resolve dissonance in favor of the heroic actor; and a consideration of how to foster heroic imagination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
The Vivian Bullwinkel Oration honours the life and work of an extraordinary nurse. Given her story and that of her World War II colleagues, the topic of nursing heroism in the 21st century could not be more germane.
Is heroism a legitimate part of nursing, or are nurses simply 'just doing their job' even when facing extreme personal danger? In this paper I explore the place and relevance of heroism in contemporary nursing. I propose that nursing heroism deserves a broader appreciation and that within the term lie many hidden, 'unsung' or 'unrecorded' heroisms. I also challenge the critiques of heroism that would condemn it as part of a 'militarisation' of nursing. Finally, I argue that nursing needs to be more open in celebrating our heroes and the transformative power of nursing achievements.
The language of heroism may sound quaint by 21st Century standards but nursing heroism is alive and well in the best of our contemporary nursing ethos and practice.
To use system ideas and the concept of 'wicked problems' to frame examination of a decade-and-a-half of UK mental health policy.
Theoretically informed policy analysis.
Modern health care is complex, and mental health care particularly so. In the UK the mental health system has also become a policymaking priority. Features of this system mean that many of the problems policymakers face are of the 'wicked' variety. Wicked problems are resistant. Problem formulations and their solutions are contestable. Solutions which have 'worked' in one setting may not 'work' in another, and evidence to guide change is open to challenge. Actions trigger waves with widespread system consequences. In the case of the UK's mental health field significant shifts have taken place in formulations of 'the problem' to which actions have been directed. These have included assessments of community care failure, formulations emphasising problems with the professions and, most recently, the need for action to promote mental health and wellbeing.
In their efforts to secure improvement in a neglected field UK policymakers have unleashed a torrent of top-down actions. Attention needs to be paid to constructing strong, system-wide, partnerships and to examining the cumulative impact of policy actions.
Four perspectives dominate thinking about moral heroism: One contends that moral action is primarily instigated by situational pressures, another holds that moral excellence entails the full complement of virtues, the third asserts a single superintending principle, and the fourth posits different varieties of moral personality. This research addresses these competing perspectives by examining the personalities of moral heroes. Participants were 50 national awardees for moral action and 50 comparison individuals. They responded to personality inventories and a life-review interview that provided a broadband assessment of personality. Cluster analysis of the moral exemplars yielded three types: a "communal" cluster was strongly relational and generative, a "deliberative" cluster had sophisticated epistemic and moral reasoning as well as heightened self-development motivation, and an "ordinary" cluster had a more commonplace personality. These contrasting profiles imply that exemplary moral functioning can take multifarious forms and arises from different sources, reflecting divergent person x situation interactions.
Heroism consists of actions undertaken to help others, despite the possibility that they may result in the helper's death or injury. The authors examine heroism by women and men in 2 extremely dangerous settings: the emergency situations in which Carnegie medalists rescued others and the holocaust in which some non-Jews risked their lives to rescue Jews. The authors also consider 3 risky but less dangerous prosocial actions: living kidney donations, volunteering for the Peace Corps, and volunteering for Doctors of the World. Although the Carnegie medalists were disproportionately men, the other actions yielded representations of women that were at least equal to and in most cases higher than those of men. These findings have important implications for the psychology of heroism and of gender.
Building on research about the characteristics and varieties of actual heroes, the purpose of this project was to investigate the extent to which different types of real heroes have similar and distinct characteristics using Q-method, a person focused method. Awarded heroes sorted 49 psychological characteristics and Q-factor analysis revealed two profiles, or groups, of heroes; “open, loving, and risk-taking heroes,” and “spiritual, socially responsible, and prudent heroes.” These findings are interpreted in light of humanistic psychology, and the implications of these findings on the field of heroism science are discussed. The profiles bring the field of heroism science a deeper and more comprehensive view of the whole heroic person, and suggest directions for using heroic examples to fostering heroism.
Heroic images are presented here as constructed possible selves which may play an important role in self development. A questionnaire was given to 510 Irish and 190 U.S. third and fourth grade children in a study designed to investigate (1) their conceptions of the heroic and (2) the effects of a classroom intervention on the Irish children's choices of heroes and heroines. The educational program was constructivist and designed to challenge children to reconsider their ideas about heroic figures and to engage in discussion designed to promote prosocial attitudes in concrete ways. While national origin and gender strongly influenced children's heroic images, there were strong factor structure similarities in U.S. and Irish samples. "The good" was the first factor, the fifth an antiheroic factor, and the others reflected figures from film, television and sport. In addition, gender differences in the choice of proximal and distal heroic figures were identified. Prosocial effects due to the intervention program were encouraging and discussed within the context of Irish educational objectives.
Heroic Leadership is a celebration of our greatest heroes, from legends such as Mahatma Gandhi to the legions of unsung heroes who transform our world quietly behind the scenes. The authors argue that all great heroes are also great leaders. The term 'heroic leadership' is coined to describe how heroism and leadership are intertwined, and how our most cherished heroes are also our most transforming leaders. This book offers a new conceptual framework for understanding heroism and heroic leadership, drawing from theories of great leadership and heroic action. Ten categories of heroism are described: Trending Heroes, Transitory Heroes, Transparent Heroes, Transitional Heroes, Tragic Heroes, Transposed Heroes, Transitional Heroes, Traditional Heroes, Transforming Heroes, and Transcendent Heroes. The authors describe the lives of 100 exceptional individuals whose accomplishments place them into one of these ten hero categories. These 100 hero profiles offer supporting evidence for a new integration of theories of leadership and theories of heroism.
In todays schools, kids bullying kids is not an occasional occurrence but rather an everyday reality where children learn early that being sensitive, respectful, and kind earns them no respect. Jessie Klein makes the provocative argument that the rise of school shootings across America, and childhood aggression more broadly, are the consequences of a society that actually promotes aggressive and competitive behavior. The Bully Society is a call to reclaim Americas schools from the vicious cycle of aggression that threatens our children and our society at large. Heartbreaking interviews illuminate how both boys and girls obtain status by acting masculinedisplaying aggression at one anothers expense as both students and adults police one another to uphold gender stereotypes. Klein shows that the aggressive ritual of gender policing in American culture creates emotional damage that perpetuates violence through revenge, and that this cycle is the main cause of not only the many school shootings that have shocked America, but also related problems in schools, manifesting in high rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-cutting, truancy, and substance abuse. After two decades working in schools as a school social worker and professor, Klein proposes ways to transcend these destructive trendstransforming school bully societies into compassionate communities.
In this article, we review the psychology of hero development and hero worship. We propose that heroes and hero narratives fulfill important cognitive and emotional needs, including the need for wisdom, meaning, hope, inspiration, and growth. We propose a framework called the heroic leadership dynamic (HLD) to explain how need-based heroism shifts over time, from our initial attraction to heroes to later retention or repudiation of heroes. Central to the HLD is idea that hero narratives fulfill both epistemic and energizing functions. Hero stories provide epistemic benefits by providing scripts for prosocial action, by revealing fundamental truths about human existence, by unpacking life paradoxes, and by cultivating emotional intelligence. To energize us, heroes promote moral elevation, heal psychic wounds, inspire psychological growth, and exude charisma. We discuss the implications of our framework for theory and research on heroism, leadership processes, and positive psychology.
Can thoughts ignite revolutions? How can one person's imagination empower millions to challenge tyranny and injustice in the name of freedom and democracy? In recent times, the world has been witnessing just such a mindful, viral transference of power in the uprisings and revolutions spreading across the Middle East. In Cairo, Egyptian youth, with neither a political leader of an opposition party, nor armed weapons to fight against the government militia, have been able to create a largely peaceful coup d'état. Remarkably, they achieved their goal in less than one month. Their success inoculated untold numbers of others in that region with a newfound moral courage, which is critical for translating personal intentions into civic action. We also have to acknowledge the power of the Internet and TV media for creating connectivity among the revolutionaries and the global spread of the unfolding events witnessed by millions worldwide, hour-by-hour. Now let us return to an earlier era when mail was in the form of written letters, "snail mail," not the digital magic of instant messaging. And we also must move our clock back to the late 1960's, while changing our Google maps from the Middle East to middle Europe, then mostly dominated by Soviet Communist regimes. Specifically, we focus our analytical lens on a young playwright whose personal vision of his nation as free from external oppression got him into continual trouble with the administration. He was frequently jailed for his vocal opposition to the Czechoslovakia Communist government. Yet, he continued to write "dissident" letters from his jail cell to his wife, and others, deploring the sad state of his country. After years of Nazi cruel rule, the Communists came along to more insidiously dominate all aspects of Czech life.
Two contrasting visions of heroism and democracy have evolved side by side. An “exclusive” vision presents democracy as involving heroic leadership by exceptional individuals along with relatively limited volunteer participation by ordinary citizens. This “exclusive” vision has been supported by the personalization of politics, as well as the increased importance of elite leaders in an era of candidate-centered democracy. In contrast, an “inclusive” vision depicts heroism as integral to everyday life for ordinary people, and widespread volunteer participation in social life as normative in all democracies. In a study we conducted that involved a nationally representative sample of 4,000 adults in the United States, about a third reported considerable volunteering, and one out of five reported having carried out a heroic act. A detailed analysis of types of volunteering and heroism supports an inclusive vision of heroism and democracy. However, a number of trends associated with globalization and technology suggest increasing challenges to this inclusive vision.
Background
The story of one of Australia's most well-known women in history, Vivian Bullwinkel, is a symbol of strength for nursing. She and her companions who were prisoners of war during World War II, refused the position of victim and went on to contribute much to the world after their ordeal.
Discussion
These women embody important elements of resilience that it is our duty to convey to generations of nurses so that they may be inspired to rise above adversity, foster connection with like-minded others, use adaptive coping mechanisms and soft power, be gentle yet persistent in their resistance practices, and most of all to do good work throughout their nursing careers.
This paper argues that oppression theory provides only a limited understanding of present woes affecting nursing. Resilience theory suggests future actions and is therefore further enlightening. By examining the experiences of Bullwinkel, students can be assisted to see that stress has been a constant theme across nursing history. However ways of rising above adversity can be illuminated by critically and deeply examining aspects of iconic leaders and heroic stories such as can be found in the life of Vivian Bullwinkel.
Summary
Students who are offered the chance to examine this symbol of strength in our profession may decide to internalise some of the positive traits and resolve to use the behaviours she and her contemporaries used to help them create for themselves a fulfilling career, pride in their profession and strong sense of purpose.
Sociologists usually define deviance as a fluid construct, relative to given social circumstances, and something that is neither negative nor positive in and of itself. Despite the rejection of absolutist approaches, the vast majority of texts and studies concerning deviant behavior implicitly or explicitly present deviance as either a morally bad or morally neutral behavior. Such literatures wrongly conflate deviant behavior with villainous actions. We argue that some of the most important deviants have been at the leading forefront of positive social change and the creation of a more just, fair, and humane society. Deviant heroes are those individuals who violate unjust norms and laws, facing the repercussions of social control, while simultaneously effecting positive social change. This article considers the theoretical role of the deviant hero within classical and contemporary sociological traditions and identifies new directions for social research.
Heroic images are presented here as constructed possible selves which may play an important role in self development. A questionnaire was given to 510 Irish and 190 U.S. third and fourth grade children in a study designed to investigate (1) their conceptions of the heroic and (2) the effects of a classroom intervention on the Irish children's choices of heroes and heroines. The educational program was constructivist and designed to challenge children to reconsider their ideas about heroic figures and to engage in discussion designed to promote prosocial attitudes in concrete ways. While national origin and gender strongly influenced children's heroic images, there were strong factor structure similarities in U.S. and Irish samples. “The good” was the first factor, the fifth an antiheroic factor, and the others reflected figures from film, television and sport. In addition, gender differences in the choice of proximal and distal heroic figures were identified. Prosocial effects due to the intervention program were encouraging and discussed within the context of Irish educational objectives.
Heroic rescuing behaviour is a male-typical trait in humans, and it is possible that life
risking acts represent a costly signal, showing that a rescuing male has good underlying genetic
quality. Previous research has shown that males with low status occupations are more frequent rescuers
than males who have higher socio-economic statuses. This study looked at news archives of
local papers in the UK in order to discover what kind of characteristics rescuers possess. It was
found that males were highly more likely to rescue than females were, and that a typical rescuer was
a low status male rescuing another male. Males with low socio-economic status were more likely to
rescue in all the contexts (fire, drowning, violence and traffic accidents). Socio-economic status and
heroism are discussed in relation to the evolutionary theory. It is suggested that heroism could be a
condition dependent life history strategy and could be related to steep future discounting.
Despite the commonly accepted belief that people are influenced by their heroes, researchers have yet to examine the process by which this occurs. The current study examined whether the process of inclusion-of-other-in-self (IOS; Aron & Aron, 19862.
Aron A
Aron EN 1986 Love and the expansion of self: Understanding attraction and satisfaction New York, NY: Hemisphere View all references), previously used to describe how significant others and social groups influence individuals' self-concepts, can explain individuals' connections to cultural heroes.A Stroop-like self-description test used previously to test IOS was presented to 63 participants. As expected, information about people's heroes affected their ability to complete self-descriptions whereas information about comparable non-heroes did not.Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of self-concept research.
Two studies examined how the social construction of heroism affects the representation of women and men as heroes. In the first study, community participants defined heroism or identified heroes. Although the most common defining elements of heroism were benefiting others, acting selflessly, and confronting risk, participants reported more male than female public heroes. However, when naming heroes whom they personally know, participants represented women and men equally. In the second study, undergraduates read a scenario describing a male or female protagonist who confronted high or low risk in rescuing a child in a situation yielding high or low benefit to the endangered child. Consistent with Study 1's typical definitions of heroism, both risk and benefit increased participants' ascription of heroism to the protagonist. Although participants perceived that men are in general more likely than women to perform heroic rescues, reading about a female protagonist caused the participants to perceive female heroism as increasingly likely.
The aim of the present study was to review the current literature on oppressed group behaviours in nursing, with emphasis on interventions to change the behaviours, and on instruments that have been developed to measure it.
Oppressed group behaviours have been described in nurses for over two decades and their presence has been related to decreased nurse self-advocacy, and other negative aspects of the nursing workplace.
Systematic review of the literature on oppressed group behaviour in nursing.
Oppressed group behaviours are frequently found in nurses. Interventions have been created and tested to decrease oppressed group behaviours.
Oppressed group behaviours are frequently found in nurses. Interventions exist that can decrease oppressed group behaviours and the decrease is related to increased work force performance, satisfaction and retention of nurses in the workplace. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSE MANAGERS: Nurse Managers can improve the workplace by measuring oppressed group behaviours and utilizing interventions to break the cycle of oppression in the workplace culture. Utilizing these innovations improve the workplace culture for nursing.
Individuals in different contexts are referred to as "heroes" for seemingly different reasons. To better understand how and why people use this term, three studies were conducted. Approaching the question deductively, individuals defined the term "hero" and responses were coded according to existing definitions. Then, a definition of hero was sought inductively by examining the specific reasons participants cited in choosing their heroes. A third study further examined individuals' descriptions of their heroes in light of their own self views. The findings across these studies extend our understanding of the term hero and suggest that the use of the term is based both on the specific features of any heroic figure, as well as on the self views of the person identifying the hero.
This article aims to deepen the understanding of courage through a theoretical analysis of classical philosophers' work and a review of published and unpublished empirical research on courage in nursing. The authors sought answers to questions regarding how courage is understood from a philosophical viewpoint and how it is expressed in nursing actions. Four aspects were identified as relevant to a deeper understanding of courage in nursing practice: courage as an ontological concept, a moral virtue, a property of an ethical act, and a creative capacity. The literature review shed light on the complexity of the concept of courage and revealed some lack of clarity in its use. Consequently, if courage is to be used consciously to influence nurses' ethical actions it seems important to recognize its specific features. The results suggest it is imperative to foster courage among nurses and student nurses to prepare them for ethical, creative action and further the development of professional nursing practices.
The concept of the hero is pervasive and enduring, extending across time, culture, and age. Although an influential schema, the hero has not been empirically examined in depth. Heroic exemplars given by students and community members were examined, and the hypotheses that individuals with high Heroism scores are more hopeful and report higher Coping than individuals with low Heroism scores were also tested. Participants reported similar depictions of heroes and heroic acts; the prototypic hero being a family member, and the most common act exemplified as averting physical harm to others. Quantitative results suggest that individuals high on Heroism scores are more hopeful and cope better than individuals low on Heroism scores. Results indicate that heroism is experienced in everyday life, and a model is proposed.
This article explores some of the latest developments of the emergence of Caring Science as the moral, theoretical, and philosophical foundation for nursing, leading to transformative personal/professional practices. Through nurse's taking responsibility for advancing nursing qua nursing, practitioners, patients, and systems alike are witnessing a revolution in nursing, which is restoring the heart of nursing and health care through theory-guided philosophical practices of heart-centered love and caring as the foundation for healing.
Nurses negotiating professional transitions, whether they are entering an academic program or assuming a new role in the workplace, often feel like impostors. The metaphor of the hero can serve as an "antidote" to the impostor syndrome. The author describes an educational experience shaped around the impostor and hero metaphors that integrates feminist process with expressive methods to transform nurses' perceptions of themselves from impostors into heroes.
The focus of this study was the concept of stigma by association, or the negative characteristics attributed to individuals (usually family members) who are in close contact with people who are stigmatized. Psychiatric nurses may likewise be affected by this stigma. Responses from 122 nurses indicated that psychiatric nursing is the least preferred specialty of 10 areas. Psychiatric nurses were least likely to be described as skilled, logical, dynamic, and respected. The findings suggest that psychiatric nursing may be stigmatized by association. Implications, especially in terms of the role of health care professionals in perpetuating stigma, are explored.
This paper is a discussion of the use of poststructuralism as a means of exploring power and empowerment in nursing.
Power and empowerment are well-researched areas of nursing practice, but the issue of how to empower nurses and patients continues to cause debate. Power and empowerment are complex issues and other researchers have provided some clarity by proposing three theoretical approaches: critical social theory, organizational theory and social psychological theory. We support their work and propose an additional poststructural approach as a means of analyzing power and empowerment in nursing.
The concept of power in nursing may be critiqued by drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and paying particular attention to two areas: disciplinary power and knowledge/power relationships. Foucault's contention was that behaviour is standardized through disciplinary power and that power and knowledge are intertwined. Nurses who seek an understanding of empowerment must first grasp such workings as hierarchical observation, normalizing judgement, the examination, and power/knowledge relationships, and that cognizance of such issues can promote nursing practice that is empowering. They need to adopt a more critical stance to understanding power and empowerment in nursing, and one way of fostering such criticism is to view nursing practice through a poststructural lens.
A poststructural approach merits a place alongside other approaches to understanding power and empowerment in nursing.
Heroes: What They do and why we Need Them
- S T Allison
- G R Goethals
Allison, S.T., Goethals, G.R., 2011. Heroes: What They do and why we Need Them. Oxford
University Press, New York.
Setting the scene: The rise and coalescence of heroism science
- S T Allison
- G R Goethals
- R M Kramer
Allison, S.T., Goethals, G.R., Kramer, R.M., 2016. Setting the scene: The rise and coalescence of heroism science. In: Allison, S.T., Kramer, R.M. (Eds.), Handbook of
Heroism and Heroic Leadership. Routledge, New York, pp. 1-17.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
- L Byrski
Byrski, L., 2015. In Love and War: Nursing Heroes. Fremantle Press, Fremantle.
Campbell, J., 1949. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Pantheon Books, New York.
Everyday heroes: Determinants of moral courage
- A Halmburger
- A Baumert
- M Schmitt
Halmburger, A., Baumert, A., Schmitt, M., 2016. Everyday heroes: Determinants of moral
courage. In: Allison, S.T., Kramer, R.M. (Eds.), Handbook of Heroism and Heroic
Leadership. Routledge, New York, pp. 166-184.
Fostering Heroism. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Wright Institute
- E Heiner
Heiner, E., 2014. Fostering Heroism. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Wright
Institute, Berkeley, CA.