Resilience: A Pilot Mixed Methods Study of HKU Medical Educators

Abstract

Resilience has emerged as a prominent concept in the arena of clinician and learner well-being. The interest in resilience reflects the alarming rates of psychological distress such as burnout reported for both healthcare practitioners and learners. Furthermore, there is concern about the associated negative impact of these issues on professionalism, patient care and healthcare systems. These findings together have fuelled calls to foster resilience throughout the medical education continuum. This challenge to develop resilience has also been amplified by the unprecedented threats the current COVID-19 pandemic has made to the health and well-being of healthcare professionals globally as highlighted by the World Health Organisation. Educators are an important group to examine for advancing our understanding of the multifactorial influences on resilience development through medical education. Notably, through their key roles in the formal, informal and hidden curricula, they are uniquely positioned to cultivate resilience in themselves, as well as their learners. Surprisingly, there is limited empirical research investigating resilience in medical educators. To our knowledge, no empirical studies related to resilience in medical educators have been done in Asia more generally, and Hong Kong specifically. Addressing this gap would extend the current literature as resilience has been argued to be nested in culture. This presentation will share the phase I findings of a pilot study conducted to examine resilience among HKU medical educators, as well as the relationships that exist between resilience in this population and their well-being, distress and sociodemographic background. The implications and future directions for research will also be discussed.