When I say ... resilience

Abstract

Arguably, within the medical education community, a phenomenon exists whereby a complex psychological or social problem is exposed and teachers identify an intervention to resolve the challenge. The problem and solution are then labelled, and the new phrases‘stick’ and begin to develop currency in discourse among educators. Unfortunately, these new terms often mean a thousand different things to a thousand different teachers. At best, this conceptual superficiality and so-called ‘labellitis’ lead to discussion and pontification among teachers from different communities, in which a common understanding is falsely assumed and wildly different conclusions are drawn. At worst, this definitional diversity serves to silo our community and, by means of jargon, to bamboozle, confuse and alienate students and clinicians who are not familiar with‘education-speak’.