Resilience for better healthcare

Wai-man Yeung 楊偉民

HK Pract 2026;48:49-50

Recently I had the chance to interact with some healthcare professionals, and we were discussing spiritual care, particularly the importance of resilience in healthcare. Why are these important? Firstly, health is traditionally viewed from three dimensions – physical (biological), psychological and social, and this three-dimensional health view is still adopted by the World Health Organization.¹ However, a fourth dimension, the spiritual, has also been recognised and considered to have its significance in mental healthcare.² Secondly, in addition to the well-being of our healthcare colleagues themselves (which is what we care about), their well-being is also noted to directly affect the well-being of the patients under their care.

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, spirituality “can be an important – sometimes a central – part of someone’s life. It can offer real benefits for mental health”. Spirituality is not equivalent to religion, though the two can be related. In general, descriptions of spirituality include the idea that it “is a sense of seeking the best relationship with ourselves, with others and with what may lie ‘beyond’”, which “can help us to find meaning and purpose in life”, which is seen to “give us a sense of hope”, and “support us in times of suffering and loss that we all experience”. As a result, spiritual health care is the health dimension that healthcare professionals can help their patients as well as themselves to achieve the goals mentioned above.³

Nowadays, healthcare professionals are often placed in a complex working environment with its emotional intensity and enormous demands from various sources. This kind of stress can affect our well-being and our capacity to provide holistic care, which is within the perspective of family medicine. Given this situation, everyday resilience can be a way that helps us cope with these challenges and maintain the service standards we aim to achieve. Resilience is defined as “the process of effectively negotiating, adapting to, or managing significant sources of stress or trauma. Assets and resources within the individual, their life and environment facilitate this capacity for adaptation and ‘bouncing back’ in the face of adversity”.⁴ If stress is not properly managed, people may be at risk of “conditions such as anxiety, depression, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout”, as well as “compassion fatigue”. In contrast, everyday resilience can help one to positively react to stress through “mindfulness, self-efficacy, coping, and psychological adjustment”.⁵ Resilience is also considered innate, which can be “developed or enhanced through cognitive transformational practices, education, and environmental support”.⁶ In other words, everyday resilience can help us to sustain ourselves in the face of challenges through these different small practices and behavioural changes that nurture connection and meaning, such that we can remain effective and compassionate in our roles. Resilience can be cultivated and improved through training as well as personal efforts; it is an area that we can further work on.

In this issue of the Hong Kong Practitioner, there are several articles shared by our colleagues, which show their excellent work, while also highlighting the complex, multi-dimensional and challenging clinical scenarios they are dealing with. In the article titled “A case report on new-onset diabetes mellitus as an early sign of pancreatic cancer in an elderly patient”⁷, Dr. Lo reminds us that diabetes mellitus, though common among the elderly, can also be the presenting problem of a sinister condition like pancreatic adenocarcinoma. This news can often be shocking and unacceptable for some patients, and family physicians must prepare themselves to break bad news as well as provide compassionate care for the patient and their loved ones, and to arrange the medical management concerned as discussed in this article. Another article titled “Recognising acyclovir-induced neurotoxicity: the importance of appropriate dosing in vulnerable patients”⁸ by Dr. Ng et al alerts us the importance of identifying the patients at risk of adverse drug effects, appropriate drug dosing and the early recognition. Prompt intervention is also highlighted should the condition of acyclovir-induced neurotoxicity be suspected or recognised. This can save lives. There is also another article titled “Prurigo pigmentosa induced by ketogenic diet – a case report and literature review”⁹ written by Dr. Hou et al, which have provided a comprehensive discussion of this dermatological condition. The increased awareness and early recognition of this condition, as well as the caring and assuring attitude of the family physician will help patients to face this unexpected adverse effect of their dietary lifestyle choice.

During my interactions with the healthcare professionals, one colleague has asked each other a question: “How would you cherish your job?” I consider this a very inspiring question, as it determines how one defines oneself as a healthcare professional, and, particularly for me, a family physician. In fact, working as a family doctor is very meaningful, as I can provide care in a holistic approach, which may not be so emphasised in some other medical specialties. However, to cope with the challenges faced by family doctors today, I should also take good care of myself, and cultivating resilience is an important area of self-care.

References

1. World Health Organization. Constitution. 2026. Accessed May 19, 2026. https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution.
2. John Swinton. Spirituality and Mental Health Care: Rediscovering a ‘Forgotten’ Dimension: By John Swinton. Psychiatric Bulletin. March 2002, 26(3):118-118. DOI:10.1192/pb.26.3.118.
3. Royal College of Psychiatrists. Spirituality and mental health. 2026. Accessed May 19, 2026. https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/treatments-and-wellbeing/spirituality-and-mental-health.
4. Gill Windle. What is resilience? A review and concept analysis. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology. 2011 May;21(2): pp. 152-169. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959259810000420.
5. Clare X Rees, Lauren J Breen, Lynette Cusack, et al. Understanding individual resilience in the workplace: the international collaboration of workforce resilience model. Frontiers in psychology. 2015 Feb 4;6:73. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00073. eCollection 2015.
6. Eileen Grafton, Brigid Gillespie, Saras Henderson. Resilience: the power within. Oncology Nursing Forum. 2010 Nov;37(6):698-705. doi: 10.1188/10.ONF.698-705.
7. Vincent YY Lo. A case report on new-onset diabetes mellitus as an early sign of pancreatic cancer in an elderly patient. HK Pract 2026;48:61-64.
8. Yiu-chung Ng, Chi-keung Chan. Recognising acyclovir-induced neurotoxicity: the importance of appropriate dosing in vulnerable patients. HK Pract 2026;48:51-56.
9. Jing Hou, Derek GC Ying, Catherine XR Chen. Prurigo pigmentosa induced by ketogenic diet – a case report and literature review. HK Pract 2026;48:57-60.