Optimizing resilience and wellbeing for healthcare professions trainees and healthcare professionals during public health crises – Practical tips for an ‘integrative resilience’ approach

Abstract

Public health crises, including pandemics, are associated with significant health risk and concomitant stress, fear, decreased sense of control, and uncertainty. Deleterious impact on both physical and mental health can result, including for healthcare professionals and health professions trainees. Changes in governmental policies and hospital protocols for healthcare professionals as well as disruption of educational formats and requirements for trainees can ensue. Difficult anxiety-provoking realities of public health crises including pandemics which involve caring for many seriously ill patients, moral distress including difficult care decisions, personal health risk, and/or potential risk to one’s family can take a dire toll on the mental health of healthcare professionals at all stages of the professional lifecycle. Educational disruptions can create significant anxiety for trainees about completing requirements and achieving competencies. Within this, coping skills may be challenged and strengths may be elucidated as well. Such crises create an imperative for medical educators to support trainees’ wellbeing through adaptive flexibility for curriculum innovation and culturally sensitive resilience and wellbeing interventions. Strategies (‘tips’) to optimize resilience and wellbeing with an integrative resilience approach of individual, learning environment, and organization/systems factors are presented.

Keywords:

• Health promotion
• ethics/attitudes
• leadership
• professionalism
• mentoring

Acknowledgments

The author dedicates this article and expresses deep gratitude to dedicated healthcare professionals, researchers, trainees, technicians, unit staff, first responders, housekeeping staff, and home health aides on the COVID-19 frontlines.

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Glossary

Resilience: The capacity to respond to stress in a healthy way such that goals are achieved at minimal psychological and physical cost; resilient individuals ‘bounce back’ after challenges while also growing stronger (Epstein and Krasner 2013), thus ‘bouncing forward’ as well (Walsh 2002).

Moral resilience: Capacity to sustain or restore moral integrity in response to moral complexity, confusion, distress, or setbacks (Rushton 2017).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hedy S. Wald

Hedy S. Wald, PhD, is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Faculty, Harvard Medical School Global Pediatrics Leadership Program. She presents internationally on interactive reflective writing-enhanced reflection supporting professional identity formation and on promoting resilience, wellbeing, and flourishing in health professions education and practice.