Interventions to increase resilience in physicians: A structured literature review

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Occupational Health
• Psychology

Background:

• Physician burnout is a growing concern, necessitating effective resilience-building strategies.
• Current research on resilience interventions for health professionals is limited.
• Understanding effective interventions is crucial for a resilient medical workforce.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically evaluate existing literature on interventions designed to enhance resilience in physicians.
• To identify common themes and effectiveness of various resilience-building approaches.

Main Methods:

• A structured literature review was conducted, searching PsycINFO, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Google Scholar.
• Key terms and Boolean operators were used within a five-year timeframe.
• Ten relevant articles were included in the final review.

Main Results:

• Mindfulness emerged as a common intervention theme in eight of the ten studies.
• Effectiveness of training programs was mixed; some showed significant resilience improvements, while others did not.
• Group, online, and coaching interventions demonstrated some success in boosting resilience.

Conclusions:

• The reviewed interventions showed varying effectiveness, with common study limitations including self-selection bias and lack of control groups.
• Findings were not exclusively physician-focused, making direct generalization difficult.
• Further research is essential to refine interventions and specifically determine what enhances physician resilience.