Resilience: a nationwide study of medical educators

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: Medical educators have the potential to play an important role in addressing resilience issues across the medical education continuum. Yet, limited research has explored this cohort, particularly in the UK context. This study aims to address this gap by exploring resilience and the factors that relate to resilience in UK medical educators. Methods: A cross-sectional online questionnaire was employed. It contained the validated Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 (CD-RISC-25) and the eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-8), for determining medical educator resilience and depression levels respectively. Sociodemographic characteristics were also collected to identify potential factors associated with resilience. Finally, participants identified factors that facilitated or undermined their resilience through open-ended questions. Data were analysed using quantitative (e.g. multiple regression analysis), and qualitative (i.e. thematic framework analysis) approaches. Results: Among 244 UK participants, the mean CD-RISC-25 score was 72.9 and standard deviation 10.3. The PHQ-8 score was the only significant negative predictor identified (B = -1.22, p < 0.001). Other sociodemographic variables examined were not found to be predictors of CD-RISC-25 scores. Educators identified multidimensional factors influencing their resilience, but predominately viewed internal factors as being supportive, and external factors as undermining. Conclusions: Medical educators in this study had resilience levels that were comparable to other population samples. The study also highlights the importance of considering external factors, such as contextual and sociocultural influences, in addition to individual factors when addressing resilience.