Faculty Videos of Resilience Narratives at Two Institutions: Residency Resilience Skills Program Innovation

Medical Setting Culture and Help Seeking Behavior

One obstacle to effective implementation of resilience skills training is medical setting culture. Revealing a mental health or coping challenge is perceived by many trainees as negatively impacting professional advancement due to perceptions of personal weakness, devaluation, and/or discrimination (Wimsatt, Schwenk, & Sen, 2015). Personal stories of physicians experiencing and coping with and/or overcoming adversity have been successfully used to increase trainees’ likelihood of seeking professional assistance when needed (Hankir, Northall, & Zaman, 2014). Likewise, hospital-wide discussion amongst caregivers from multiple disciplines about social and emotional issues health professionals face in caring for patients and families may improve resilience (Taylor, Xyrichis, Leamy, Reynolds, & Maben, 2018). However, it is unclear if exposure to the narratives of those who are not known to the observer have an impact on asking for help from supervisors or colleagues and/or resilience-promoting culture. There is thus a need for division or department-based interventions that may serve to support resilience as well as increase the likelihood that trainees will reach out for emotional support or referrals from their faculty mentors or supervisors.