Identifiable Grit: Reflections from the Sigma Theta Tau Alpha Alpha Induction Ceremony

By Ashley A. Kellish, DNP, RN, CCNS

On April 6, 2025, I had the distinct honor of addressing the newest inductees of the Sigma Theta Tau Alpha Alpha chapter. As I stood before these bright minds—the future of nursing excellence—I chose to speak about something fundamental to our profession yet often overlooked in academic settings: grit.

What is Grit?

The formal definition of grit is simple: courage and resolve, strength of character. But I wanted to delve deeper into what grit actually means for nurses specifically.

Nelson Mandela exemplifies this definition perfectly. Against seemingly insurmountable odds—27 years of imprisonment, systemic oppression, and personal sacrifice—Mandela maintained his resolve. His courage wasn’t just in his resistance but in his ultimate forgiveness and vision for reconciliation. What made Mandela’s grit so powerful wasn’t just his endurance through hardship but his ability to transform that hardship into hope.

Historical Examples of Grit

Throughout history, we find extraordinary individuals whose lives demonstrate the many facets of grit.

Beethoven’s Resilience

Ludwig van Beethoven’s story resonates deeply with healthcare professionals. When the composer began losing his hearing—the very sense most precious to a musician—he didn’t abandon his craft. Instead, he adapted. He sawed the legs off his piano so he could feel the vibrations through the floor. He composed some of his most profound works, including his Ninth Symphony, while completely deaf. Beethoven’s grit wasn’t just about perseverance; it was about innovation in the face of loss.

Thomas Edison’s Persistence

Thomas Edison’s famous persistence illuminates another dimension of grit. After approximately 10,000 failed attempts to create a commercially viable light bulb, Edison reportedly said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This process of trial and error—the repeated cycles of attempt, failure, adjustment, and reattempt ultimately led to breakthrough. For nurses, this resonates with our evidence-based practice approach: we test, measure, analyze, and refine our approaches to care.

Picasso and Dora Maar: Grit Through Artistic Expression

Picasso’s “Guernica” and his portraits of Dora Maar (often called “The Weeping Woman”) illustrate how grit manifests through creative expression. “Guernica” was Picasso’s gut-wrenching response to the bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War—his way of processing trauma and bearing witness to suffering. Similarly, his portraits of photographer Dora Maar capture raw emotional pain. These works remind us that grit sometimes means confronting difficult emotions and experiences rather than avoiding them—a lesson particularly relevant to nurses who witness human suffering daily.

Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”

Vincent van Gogh created “The Starry Night” while voluntarily confined in an asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Despite his mental health struggles, he transformed his pain into one of the most recognized and beloved paintings in Western culture. For nurses, Van Gogh’s example reminds us that our greatest contributions sometimes emerge from our deepest struggles, and that healing often involves transforming pain rather than merely escaping it.

Modern Examples of Grit

These historical examples provide foundation, but contemporary instances of grit can resonate more immediately with today’s nursing students.

Taylor Swift’s Master Recordings Battle

The music industry offers a modern business example of grit. When music manager Scooter Braun acquired the rights to Taylor Swift’s master recordings without her consent, Swift faced a profound professional setback. Rather than accepting this loss, she embarked on an ambitious project to re-record her entire back catalog of albums as “Taylor’s Versions,” effectively creating new masters she would own herself. This professional reinvention demonstrates how grit can manifest as strategic problem-solving and long-term thinking in the face of career obstacles—a valuable lesson for nurses navigating complex healthcare systems.

Professional Athletes’ Mental and Physical Resilience

Elite athletes demonstrate a different but equally important form of grit. Athletes like Simone Biles, who has publicly discussed her mental health challenges while continuing to redefine what’s possible in gymnastics, embody the integration of physical and psychological resilience. For nurses, who face both physical demands (long shifts, physical patient care) and psychological challenges, this balanced approach to resilience is essential.

COVID-19 Pandemic Response

Perhaps the most poignant example for the nursing audience is the response of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The emotional and physical toll on healthcare workers was immense. The images of nurses embracing, fully encased in PPE, captured something profound about nursing grit—it is often collective. We draw strength from one another when our individual reserves are depleted. The pandemic revealed that nursing grit isn’t just about personal endurance but about community support and solidarity during crisis.

The Foundation of Sigma Theta Tau

The historical perspective on Sigma Theta Tau’s founding provides important context for new inductees. Founded in 1922 by six visionary nurses—Mary Tolle Wright, Edith Moore Copeland, Marie Hippensteel Lingeman, Dorothy Garrigus Adams, Elizabeth Russell Belford, and Elizabeth McWilliams Miller—at Indiana University, the organization emerged at a time when women and nurses were fighting for professional recognition.

The founders chose Greek letters that represent their core values: Storgé (Love), Tharsos (Courage), and Timé (Honor). These values weren’t merely aspirational; they were necessary qualities for women establishing professional identity in the early 20th century. The founders exemplified grit in their determination to elevate nursing as a scholarly profession deserving of academic respect.

The Central Message: Grit Is What’s Left In Between

The core message of my address was simple yet profound: “Grit is what’s left in between.” This phrase encapsulates my philosophy about resilience in nursing. Grit isn’t found in achievements or accolades, but in the spaces between them—in the daily challenges, setbacks, and ordinary moments that test our resolve.

For new nurses, grit happens between the textbook knowledge and the bedside application. It’s in the gap between what we expected nursing to be and what it actually is. It exists in the space between who we are when we enter the profession and who we become through its trials and triumphs.

For experienced nurses, grit manifests in the moments between burnout and renewal, between losing a patient and caring for the next one, between systemic frustrations and patient breakthroughs.

Conclusion: The Continuing Relevance of Grit in Nursing

As I concluded my address to these new Sigma Theta Tau inductees, I emphasized that their induction wasn’t the end of a journey but the beginning of one. The pin they received symbolizes not just academic achievement but a commitment to embodying the grit that has defined our profession since its inception.

In an era of nursing shortages, accelerating technology, and changing healthcare landscapes, grit remains the constant that will carry these new nurses through their careers. Just as Mandela, Beethoven, Edison, and countless nurses during the pandemic demonstrated different facets of grit, each of these inductees will discover their own unique expression of resilience.

The ceremony ended, but the real work of these nurses—finding and refining their grit in the spaces between challenges—continues. As they move forward in their careers, they join a legacy of nursing professionals who have turned obstacles into opportunities and struggles into strength.

Ashley A. Kellish, DNP, RN, CCNS, is a nursing leader, consultant, and founder of HIVE Network Group, helping healthcare organizations develop sustainable processes and psychological safety.