Grit, resilience and mindset in health students

Abstract

Summary Background Grit, resilience and a growth mindset are personal traits conducive to optimal learning and clinical readiness. These are important traits to consider with regards to whether a student thrives or struggles in challenging situations. Research with medical, nursing and pharmacy students demonstrates correlations of these traits with positive well‐being and academic success. No research has investigated the traits of resilience, grit and mindset type together in health professional students to explore whether they are related, and none have focused on physiotherapy students. Methods Cross‐sectional study of final‐year physiotherapy students (n = 134) aiming to describe the levels of these personal traits and to determine whether they are related to each other or demographic factors. Results A proportion of physiotherapy students have low levels of resilience (25%), low academic resilience (19%) and low levels of grittiness (13%). Grit and resilience were positively related (p < 0.001). A smaller fraction of students had a fixed mindset in relation to intelligence (7%) and talent (10%). Having a mental health condition or disability and the number of hours spent in paid employment were related to personal traits. Discussion This is the first study to document empirical evidence of physiotherapy students’ levels of grit, resilience and mindset type with a significant proportion of students having low levels of these attributes. Results have implications for clinical educators and universities seeking to improve student well‐being in order to facilitate effective learning. Institutions need to consider best‐practice approaches to managing and supporting these students to foster well‐being for effective learning.

A Pilot Study Of Teachers’ Feedback According To Carol Dweck's Mindset Theory

“…Our results, as well as the research results of Calo et al (2019) or the results of the Altunel (2019) research, do not agree with the findings of Dweck and Molden (2018). There is a possibility that this is due to the specificity of our research files (health students, teachers) or the use of a measuring tool that is not standardized for individual nationalities.…”

“…were found in research among Australian health students (Calo et al, 2019). Similarly, the research among Turkish students presented 18% of people with a fixed setting mindset and 64% of people with a growth mindset (Altunel, 2019).…”

“…Testing of children and adults shows that about 40% of people tend to endorse a fixed mindset, and about 40% tend to endorse a growth mindset, and about 20% are undecided. A significantly lower percentage of people with a fixed mindset (about 10%) and a higher percentage of people with a growth mindset (around 75%) were found in research among health students (Calo et al, 2019) or research among Turkish students -18% of people with a fixed mindset and 64% of people with a growth mindset (Altunel, 2019). A growth mindset can be fostered through in-school (Blackwell et al, 2007;Schmidt et al, 2017) or online (Paunesku et al, 2015) interventions in which children learn that intelligence can be developed over time through hard work, learning strategies, and help from others (Rattan et al, 2015).…”

Job Satisfaction, Grit And Mindsets Of Teachers

“…The relationship between grit and mindset is examined in different research cohorts differing in the profession, age, nationality, data collection method, number of respondents (e.g. Barbouta et al, 2020;Calo et al, 2019;Lee, 2018). Probably the diversity of the research cohorts is the reason for the differing results regarding the relationship between grit and mindset.…”

“…Strength positive correlation between Grit and Mindset score (r = 0,527; p < 0,01) was detected in Caucasian (UK, Greek) and Asian (Chinese, Arabic) undergraduate and postgraduate students (Barbouta et al, 2020). A weak correlation relationship between Grit and mindset (r = 0.2; p <0.05) was found in Australian physiotherapy students (Calo et al, 2019) or Korean office workers (r = 0, 32; p <0.01) in Lee (2018).Job satisfaction of nurses demonstrated a moderately positive correlation with grit (r = 0,3; p < 0,001) in the research of Sellers et al (2019). Findings are contradictory.…”