Kay Aranda and Angie Hart use practice-based theories to examine how actions that develop resilience can promote change

Resilience has become a popular way to promote health and wellbeing, not just among patients but also healthcare and social care professionals coping with heavy workloads and stressful environments. Commonly defined as the ability to bounce back while living or working in adverse, challenging or disadvantaged contexts, resilience is seen as a resource for individuals and communities, as well as a way to tackle inequalities. This paper explores these concerns for primary care and community healthcare practitioners. Drawing on a research dataset from south east England, we show how learning about resilience affects practitioners’ work and their own resilience. Using practice-based theories to understand these effects, the paper discusses these increasingly resilient practitioners and how their actions or ‘resilient moves’ might promote change to tackle health and social inequalities.