The case for resilience in veterinary nursing care

Any discussion about resilience must begin by acknowledging that challenges, setbacks and obstacles occur naturally and, as such, may not be entirely controlled or avoided. Irrespective of one's best efforts, environments change, people demonstrate their human capacity for failure and organisations face increasing pressure to respond in a competitive market (Hatler and Sturgeon, 2013). The only constant in the universe is change. We all suffer knocks to our confidence at times, which can cause us to question the lives we have built and who we are. Consider those who have lost their job, received a serious health diagnosis or are dealing with the illness of a loved one. Resilience is essential to rise above adversity; those who are resilient display a greater capacity to continue forward in the face of difficulty or crisis — but what exactly is resilience, and can it be learned?

Resilience is not a new concept. History is filled with the biographies and poetry of men and women whose greatness was achieved primarily through the resilience with which they met and overcame adversity (Power, 2014). However, it was in the 1970s that the concept of resilience began to truly emerge when child psychologists began to track and evaluate children who had lived through traumatic home circumstances. The children studied were from a variety of settings, including poverty-stricken areas, abusive situations, parents with illnesses including mental health concerns and so on. Researchers were amazed that despite such chaos and upheaval within their childhood, children from such backgrounds had grown up to live healthy adult lives (Turner, 2014). This led psychologists to ask themselves the question, ‘What is the human trait or characteristic that enables people to thrive in the aftermath of tragedy or adversity?’ The answer to this question eventually led to the term resilience.