Abstract
Background: Psychological resilience facilitates adaptation in stressful environments and is an important personal characteristic that enables workers to navigate occupational challenges. Few studies have evaluated the factors associated with psychological resilience in healthcare workers.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with psychological resilience in a group of South African medical doctors and ambulance personnel.
Materials and Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study used secondary data obtained from studies conducted with healthcare workers. Factors associated with resilience, as measured by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10), were evaluated.
Results: A total of 647 healthcare workers were included in the study. Resilience scores were low overall (27.6 ± 6.6) but higher for ambulance personnel (28.0 ±6.9) than for doctors (27.1 ± 6.0) (p=0.006). The factors associated with high resilience scores in doctors were male gender (p< 0.001), higher income (p=0.020), and current smoking (p=0.012), while for ambulance personnel, there was previous alcohol use (p=0.002). Significantly lower resilience was observed in participants with mental health conditions (doctors: p=0.037; ambulance personnel: p=0.010) who were receiving treatment for mental health conditions (ambulance personnel: p=0.029). Multivariable analysis confirmed that the protective factors for doctors were current smoking status (β= 3.52, p=0.009) and a higher salary (β= 5.11, p=0.006), while for ambulance personnel, the protective factor was previous alcohol use (β=3.22, p=0.003). Female gender (β=-1.77, p=0.032) and working overtime with doctors (β=-5.11 p=0.006) increased the likelihood of low resilience.
Conclusions: Resilience was relatively low in this group of South African healthcare workers. The strong association between low resilience and individual and workplace factors provides avenues for early intervention and building resilience in healthcare workers.