Resilience and its associated factors in optometry students from eight institutions across six countries

Resilience is a key enabler for healthcare professionals including optometrists, to cope with adversities and practice self-care. Evaluating the levels of resilience and its associated factors in optometry students can lead to the development of appropriate intervention strategies for academic and professional success.

The moderately high prevalence of mental health issues and burnout among optometry students suggests a need to equip the next generation of optometrists with the necessary skills to enhance mental health. Resilience has been shown to mitigate burnout among healthcare professionals and offer personal and professional benefits. Additionally, resilience education during healthcare student training can enhance mental health and wellbeing, leading to better patient care. This study aims to evaluate resilience levels and its associated factors (self-efficacy, mindfulness, positive and negative affect, and coping strategies) in optometry students.

Students enrolled in optometry schools across eight institutions in six countries were invited to participate in an online survey within the period of April 2023 - January 2024. The survey comprised of demographic data, existing and validated questionnaires on resilience, self-efficacy, mindfulness, positive and negative affect, and coping strategies. Descriptive statistics and linear regressions were used for analysis.

A total of 294 valid responses were collected. There were no significant differences in resilience scores between countries. Greater resilience (p < 0.05) was associated with older age, higher academic grades and having no financial assistance. Additional predictors of greater resilience included higher self-efficacy, mindfulness, positive affect and acceptance scores, and lower behavioural disengagement scores.

Identifying factors that affect resilience in optometry students provides information for targeted strategies that enhance resilience. More work is required to understand the generalisability of these results, impact of culture on resilience, and appropriate intervention methods.