Unfolding insights about resilience and its coping strategies by medical academics and healthcare professionals at their workplaces: a thematic qualitative analysis.
Salman Yousuf Guraya, Jacqueline Maria Dias, Mohamed Ahmed Eladl, Ayah Mohammad Rajai Rustom, Fatima Audi Saleem Alalawi, Majid Hassan Saleh Alhammadi, Yusra Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed, Amna Ali Omran Taryam Al Shamsi, Sarah Juman Bilalaga, Alfred Nicholson, Hani Malik, Shaista Salman Guraya
Author Information
Salman Yousuf Guraya: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. sguraya@sharjah.ac.ae.
Jacqueline Maria Dias: College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Mohamed Ahmed Eladl: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Ayah Mohammad Rajai Rustom: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Fatima Audi Saleem Alalawi: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Majid Hassan Saleh Alhammadi: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Yusra Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Amna Ali Omran Taryam Al Shamsi: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Sarah Juman Bilalaga: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Alfred Nicholson: Royal college of Surgeons in Ireland, Medical University of Bahrain, Muharraq, Bahrain.
Hani Malik: Peridot, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Shaista Salman Guraya: Institute of Learning, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Scinces, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
BACKGROUND: Health care professionals (HCPs) and medical and health academics (MHAs) strive to maintain and promote population health through evidence-based medical education and practice. At their workplaces, due to the demanding nature of work, HCPs and MHAs face substantial degrees of physiological, psychological, and physical stress, including burnout. Resilience has therefore become a fundamental necessity in the medical field. Our research aimed to acquire an in-depth comprehension of how HCPs and MHAs understand, cultivate, and sustain resilience when confronted with workplace challenges and stressors. METHODS: We reviewed the existing corpus of literature about resilience, stressors, and coping strategies and followed an iterative deliberations process to develop an interview guide. The guide was validated by content experts and was piloted on a small group of MHAs of the University of Sharjah (UoS) and HCPs from different hospitals of the United Arab Emirates to test its relevance, internal consistency, and inter-observer validity. The validated interview guide was then administered for in-person interviews. Lastly, we adopted the Braun and Clarke 6-stage thematic model for qualitative data analysis. RESULTS: Our study recorded insights of 170 participants; 69 MHAs and 101 HCPs. Through an inductive thematic analysis, three overarching themes with sub-themes emerged; cognitive mastery (cognitive appraisal and problem-solving abilities), affective well-being (gratification from professional efficacy and social support), and conative efficiency (proactive approaches and introspection and reflection). Other main findings highlighted stress-related factors, realistic expectations, personal well-being and work-life balance. MHAs were concerned about academic output and research, while HCPs were stressed about patient care, delivery of services, and workload. These factors highlighted a complex interaction between cognitive mastery, emotional well-being, and conative efficiency. CONCLUSION: The findings of our study bestow valuable insights into the dynamic nature of resilience in the medical profession. The synergies and dissimilarities in work-life balance, personal productivity, and job-specific stressors among HCPs and MHAs demand a well-structured resilience program. The themes of cognitive mastery, affective well-being, and conative efficiency are interconnected and can help foster work-life balance and personal well-being of HCPs and MHAs to improve their resilience.
