What do we know about student resilience in health professional education? A scoping review of the literature

Abstract

Objectives: Resilience has been identified as a key capability to thrive in the complex changing work environment of the 21st century. Therefore, the aim of this scoping review was to investigate how resilience is understood in the context of pre-qualifying health education, if there is a need to build student resilience, and what approaches to enhancing student resilience are described in the literature. Design and Data Sources: Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) literature scoping review design was adopted as it enables researchers to review, summarise and analyse the literature on a given topic. The databases searched were Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Scopus, Proquest, Medline, Science Direct, and Education Resources Information Centre. Review Method: Four research questions informed the literature review: (1) how is resilience conceptualised in the literature?, (2) what evidence exists for the need for resilience enhancement?, (3) what resilience factors should inform resilience enhancement?, and (4) what resilience enhancement programs are described in the literature? Results: A total of 36 papers were reviewed in detail. Whilst the need for a focus on resilience across the health professions was evident an array of definitions and conceptualisations of resilience were described. A small number of approaches to enhancing resilience were identified. Conclusion: Whilst widespread recognition of the importance of resilience in the health professions exists the area remains under theorised with limited conceptual models and robust interventions published to date.