Can you teach resilience? What makes one person more resilient than the next?

The word "resilience" seems to have lost all meaning recently, it's become such a buzz word (or just a means for older people to snipe at young people). It's not an across-the-board quality, an individual can be resilient in one situation (for example, a physically demanding hike) but not in another (a corporate networking event). And your own personal circumstances will determine your level of resilience at any given point in time.

Resilience tends to come with knowing what you're doing, which is a combination of technique and experience. In an NHS ICU context I would use that money to focus on the former - whether that's the technique to do their actual jobs or specific trauma response techniques.

Some people are naturally more resilient than others but there are definitely coping mechanisms that can build your resilience and reactions to situations. The biggest factor is not to think that it's your job to change the world or fix people. Shit happens and it's only personal in a tiny about of cases.
Save emotional involvement to only those in your immediate family and closest friend. Prioritise eating well and getting enough sleep. Learn how to say no. Above all don't dwell on past mistakes, chalk up to experience and move on. No matter how bad things seem, this too shall pass.

I think you can teach children resilience, I imagine it is much harder for adults whose personalities are hard wired to be the way they are... I'm not very resilient, I have had over a decade of therapy and whilst it has helped me tremendously it hasnt really made me more resilient, so I'm unsure it would work personally.

I don’t think it can be taught as such, but it can definitely be learned if the individual is at a point in life where they are ready to do so.

IME increased resilience came with a huge mindset shift that started with meditation lessons. Completely life changing.

If there was a pot of money perhaps rather than resilience training as such there could be an easily accessible way to learn how to wind down when stressed. Some sort of life coaching might fit the bill (the real sort with measurable results, not the selling courses on fb kind). I’ve seen some incredible changes in people with that sort of input.

I’m not sure that resilience can be taught as such. I think we can learn strategies such as mindfulness or self care that might help people cope more easily with the stress of deaths of patients, for example (but perhaps this might be seen by some as teaching resilience?)

For me, my resilience level changes with my stress/personal issues. For example, when I was undergoing multiple surgeries, two grandparents dying and a friendship breakdown, I was not resilient and really struggled with things at work that normally I’d breeze through. Currently, I’m healthy, I’m happy and these same work issues are a non event. I say all this to illustrate that resiliency is unique to the individual and not set in stone.

I would probably start by having a think about what the gaps are and where people need support in your eyes as it is a very specific environment, maybe a focus group across roles?

I agree resilience is something "mostly" built in younger years and even then i think you either have it or you dont.

Also feel resilience is different to everyone depending on the subject/situation.

Perhaps more of a course on "coping mechanisms" or similar could be helpful?

I agree, I think. Some investment into employees' fitness and making their lives easier, or being better remunerated for their job.

Is anything offered currently if there's a particularly difficult situation at work?

Gosh, I'm not sure you can teach it to people who are already adults and working in stressful environments like an ICU. I would have said it would be more useful to have a periodic proper debriefing process with someone senior and experienced?

I think most resilience is learned when you're younger. I try to model dusting myself off, getting back up and forging on after a failure for my young DS, and not being afraid to try new things and get out of my comfort zone.

But it probably matters whether people were asking for resilence training in terms of dealing with perennially stressful working conditions where people die in distressing circumstances, or whether they mean resilience in the sense of picking yourself up after failures...?

I don't think you can be taught resilience.

What makes one person cope better or worse than someone else involves way too much. Their whole current situation, their upbringing, their physical and mental health. All of this impacts how resilient someone is.

People can also be resilient or less so in the face of different situations. One person can seem extremely resilient to turbulence in their personal life, but fall apart easily at work, and vice versa.

Personally I think the best thing you can do with spare money at work is give it to the bloody employees lol. Or hire other people to give overworked employees a break. Or something. Resilience training doesn't sound helpful.