Resilience As A Doctor Case Study

A doctor requires more than just academic skill; a range of non-cognitive qualities are required for a doctor to provide the best quality care for their patients. For example, communication skills and problem-solving1 as well as honesty and being hard-working. Probity can be defined as being honest and decent and withholding strong moral principles2. The GMC outlines the importance of probity in the GMC guidance for Medical students: professional values and fitness to practise3 and highlights the importance of doctors acting with integrity to maintain the trust of the public within the medical profession. Resilience is the ability to overcome difficulties and to recover from these challenges while becoming stronger2. Conscientiousness is working

As a result, students need to be able to overcome any difficulties which they may face during the course, such as modules which they struggle with, and be able to continue putting enough effort into all their other modules too. A study on US medical students11 found that students who were resilient were less likely to experience burnout throughout their studies. This in turn leads to the students having a more positive education and enjoying their learning environment. The study11 showed that the resilient students (36.6% of those investigated) were less likely to experience depressive symptoms than the more vulnerable students (63.4%). In this investigation, resilience was measured using a questionnaire where the students were asked to report when they last experienced ‘burn-out’. As a result, the study was very subjective since it relied on the judgement of the students to decide whether they were resilient or not. However, given the nature of the value being investigated, it would be difficult to create an objective study. Resilience is even more important as a doctor, compared with medical students, since working long hours with patients can be physically, mentally and emotionally draining. A study into physician resilience12 describes resilience as

These qualities develop all through life, but are truly tested at university as a medical student and then throughout one’s career as a doctor. Some studies suggest that teaching these professional values at university will lead to a better workforce of doctors, and Stephenson, Adshead and Higgs15 suggest that attitudinal behaviours should be assessed at university, but I personally believe that professional values cannot be taught nor examined in a formal setting. Instead, I believe that probity, resilience and conscientiousness are values which medical students will develop naturally while working because they need to adapt to the situations. Assessment of these qualities would be indirect, with resilience being the ability to continue working without burnout and conscientiousness being demonstrated by students meeting deadlines and completing their work thoroughly. Furthermore, probity, conscientiousness and resilience are all connected so it would be difficult to segregate them and assess them individually. To conclude, probity, resilience and conscientiousness are qualities which are really relevant to being a Medical student and a doctor, and hence why their importance is outlined in the GMC Guidelines for good medical