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THE ROLE OF REFLECTION IN DEVELOPING RESILIENCE
When burdened by work related stress, our resilience is reduced, and we feel that we struggle to cope.
Resilience is defined as being able to adapt in the face of, often severe, difficulty (see Masten and Powell, 2003). It is a dynamic developmental process and is studied by looking at how competence develops in the face of adversity. When people’s adaptive abilities are in good working order, they can withstand hardship, but when they are stressed or overloaded this becomes more difficult.
How can reflection help to maintain or to rebuild resilience? Resilience has been shown to be made up of five areas:
- Competency (feeling successful)
- Belonging (feeling valued)
- Usefulness (feeling needed)
- Potency (feeling empowered)
- Optimism (feeling encouraged and hopeful)
In healthcare it is easy to feel that our successes are rare, there is little or no value to what we do and that we have little or no power and these feelings can result in feeling discouraged and hopeless.
However, using reflection can address three of the elements required for resilience:
- Support
- Critical thinking
- Collaboration
Support is an essential component of resilience development. We all need to feel that we are not alone, that we are valued, and our work appreciated. Taking time to talk to a peer or a friend can help to clarify feelings of worthlessness and impotence. The support mechanism of another person listening and asking how you felt, what you would have liked to have done and what your underlying values were, can mean that we feel supported a little more.
Being able to think critically as the participants in West’s (2001) research, can help to clarify the way through unclear and complex situations. “David” found it difficult to separate work issues and personal life issues but found that being asked some thought-provoking questions enabled that level of criticality to move the mists of confusion and to see things more clearly. Use some of the questions in this module to provide a starting point.
Resilient professionals are very often highly collaborative. Working in teams and with other people helps to mitigate against some of the feelings of hopelessness. Using reflective practices to identify ways to collaborate further and how to maximise those collective endeavours, can lead to a higher sense of value and contribution.