What are the factors affecting resilience in health professionals? A synthesis of systematic reviews

Introduction: Health professionals often have cumbersome responsibilities, performing their roles in complex environments under stressful circumstances. Resilience has been recognized as an enabler of thriving in such adversity and remains vague in the health profession literature.

Aims: This paper aims to provide a synthesis of existing literature reviews of the evidence for resilience in health professionals, thematically integrating factors affecting resilience in health professionals.

Methods: Electronic databases were searched systematically using inclusion and exclusion criteria to include literature reviews that explored resilience in health care professionals using purposive sampling of primary research studies.

Results: Nine studies were identified. The definition of resilience varied across the studies. Four main themes of factors affecting resilience were found: (1) the influence of individual factors (e.g. individual traits, having a higher purpose, being self-determined), (2) environmental and organizational factors (e.g. workplace culture), (3) approaches that an individual takes when interacting with her/his professional circumstances (e.g. professional shielding and self-reflection), and (4) effective educational interventions (e.g. resilience workshops).

Conclusions: Resilience is multidimensional and can be affected by multiple factors. Interventions to improve resilience should consider context and focus on improvement of adaptive abilities of health professionals in adversity. A more uniformed definition and measurement of resilience can further research in this field.