Resilience: insights from medical educators

Abstract

Background: Educators have unique opportunities to cultivate resilience in themselves and in their learners across the medical education continuum through the formal, informal and hidden curricula. Yet, there is a dearth of research exploring how medical educators conceptualise resilience, and how they foster learner resilience in medical education.

Methods: Thematic framework analysis was conducted on data collected through an online questionnaire, which was part of a larger study exploring resilience in medical educators. Open‐ended questions examined educators’ conceptualisations of resilience and how they reported supporting resilience in their learners. Sociodemographic characteristics were also collected to describe the sample of participants.

Findings: A total of 244 medical educators participated from across the UK. They predominantly conceptualised resilience as an individual process. Participants mostly reported approaches to fostering learner resilience that aligned with the formal and informal curricula. Approaches addressing the hidden curriculum were seldom mentioned.

Discussion: Opportunities exist for faculty development around multidimensional conceptualisations of resilience, and for medical educators to critically reflect on how their concepts of resilience may be influencing their approach to fostering learner resilience. Furthermore, the hidden curriculum could be featured as one of the multifaceted strategies to support resilience in learners.