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Background: Resilience is an increasingly used term in medicine and subject to various definitions, often not easy to grasp. There are established core concepts for patients receiving palliative care, for example, meaning in life, that have already been researched a lot. Resilience, relative to these concepts, is a new object of research in palliative care, where it has so far been used predominantly with regard to the well-being of teams., Aim: To explore how experts in palliative care define the concept of resilience and its suitability for patients, significant others, and professionals., Design: Qualitative study using summarizing content analysis according to Mayring., Setting/participants: Twenty-one health and social care professionals with expertise caring for persons with life-threatening/limiting illnesses and their relatives were interviewed in three individual interviews and four focus groups. All conversations were recorded, transcribed, coded via MAXQDA, and validated by another researcher., Results: Resilience has been described as something procedural, dynamic, individual, and flexible. In connection with well-known concepts such as posttraumatic growth or terms from the field of mindfulness, social environment or personal factors have also been linked to resilience. Resources such as spirituality can contribute to resilience, and resilience itself can function as a resource, for example, by contributing to quality of life. An active use of the term in practical work with patients or relatives is rare, but it is used in education or team measures. Limited lifespan can pose a challenge to an active use of the concept of resilience., Conclusion: Resilience as a very individual approach provides added value to other core concepts of palliative care. Within the palliative context, the normative dimension of resilience must be well reflected. A broader definition of resilience is recommended, leaving room for everyone to find their own form of resilience. The concept of resilience in palliative care includes opportunities as well as risks and should, therefore, be implemented carefully, requiring specific training., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), 2024.)

Objectives: Despite its high appeal, the concept of resilience remains unclear. Current definitions include a process approach, but most resilience scales remain trait-based. This study assessed implicit concepts of researchers in an interdisciplinary research group in order to develop a process-based model of resilience. Methods: Expert interviews were conducted with nine experienced researchers from the fields of theology, medicine, and philosophy and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Categories are classified as predictive, process-related or outcome-related. Central elements in the process are the articulation and acceptance of negative experiences as well as a narrativization and meaningful integration of experiences. Conclusions: Based on the categories, a working definition for a process-oriented resilience model is created.The categories show proximity to known elements and goals of psychotherapy. The reinterpretation of resilience as a process of conscious "moving forward" (Yahuda) instead of an unattainable "hero ideal" can be helpful for psychotherapy patients.

Background: The concept of resilience is becoming increasingly disseminated from material science into various fields of science. It is infiltrating medical fields predominantly via psychology and is also recommended for coping with the special burdens in pain management and palliative care. A precise definition of the term and its operationalization pose problems., Aim: A critical stocktaking of the use of this term in the discourse of palliative care research., Method: Analytical discourse analysis of a text corpus from palliative medical care publications in the time period from 2000 to 2021, obtained by means of a systematic literature search., Results: In the research discourse of palliative care, resilience is a topic primarily as a strategy for self-optimization of employees (e.g., burnout prophylaxis with the aim of preserving the workforce). Only rarely does the question of whether it offers potential for patients and their families take center stage, and then more as a catchword than as a concrete concept. The reason is that there is so far no adequate operationalization of the concept of resilience. Furthermore, there is a lack of sufficient justification for the relevance of the concept in patient care of palliative medicine., Conclusion: There is a lack of qualified contributions of palliative research to the metadiscourse about resilience, especially in the context of affected patients. A successful operationalization of the term requires a highly complex multidimensionality of the palliative path of an interdisciplinary approach. There is a lack of ethical standards that prevent an affirmative instrumentalizing application of the term., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Purpose: This article aims to identify how the term "resilience" is addressed in adult health science due to ongoing criticism about the lack of consistency in its conceptualization. Method: Two databases (PubMed and PsycArticles) were searched to retrieve reviews published from 2015 up until 2020 on the general conceptualization of resilience. All reviews had to meet specific inclusion criteria, which resulted in the inclusion of 18 articles. After discussing different conceptualizations regarding the process-oriented approach of resilience in adult health research, we will highlight some mechanisms that are supposed to be involved in the resilience process. Results: Research on resilience in health sciences confronts three core difficulties: defining positive outcome for a processual construct, describing different trajectories within the process, and identifying mechanisms that mediate resilience. Conclusion: The definition of resilience in mental health research as a multidimensional adaptation process is widely accepted, and multiple research paradigms have contributed to a better understanding of the concept. However, the definition of a processual construct in a way that allows for high expert consensus and a valid operationalization for empirical studies remains a challenge. Future research should focus on the assessment of multiple cross-domain outcomes and international and interdisciplinary prospective mixed-method longitudinal designs to fill in the missing links., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Hiebel, Rabe, Maus, Peusquens, Radbruch and Geiser.)