The Bulletin of National Defence University of Ukraine

  • Received 26.12.2025,
  • Revised 12.05.2026,
  • Accepted 12.06.2026
  • Published 24.06.2026
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Vol. 21, No. 3, 2026
  • professional hardiness; emotional self-regulation; adaptive thinking; team interaction; psychological support; self-regulation under stress; development programme
  • https://doi.org/10.33099/2617-6858-26-21-3-42-51
  • Pages 42-51

The relevance of the study is conditioned by the need for scientific substantiation of the psychological foundations of maintaining the reliability and psychological stability of military physicians in conditions of war. The activity of this category of specialists is characterised by the cumulative impact of combat stress, responsibility for preserving the lives and health of wounded and ill personnel, limited time for clinical decision-making, sustained psycho-emotional strain, and the need to address complex ethical dilemmas. Under such conditions, the risk of emotional exhaustion, burnout, secondary trauma, and reduced efficiency of functioning increases. This actualises the need to develop specialised programmes for the development of military doctors’ resilience as an integrative psychological resource of self-regulation, adaptation, preservation of professional identity, and constructive interaction in extreme conditions of service and professional activity. The purpose of the study was to substantiate the content and structural foundations and practical tools of the author’s programme for developing the resilience of a military doctor in war conditions. The empirical basis of the study was provided by materials from the formative phase of the piloting of the author’s programme. The design included pre- and post-experimental evaluation of indicators in the control and experimental groups. The study involved 30 military interns divided into two groups of 15 people. The programme was designed for 30 hours and covered 10 interrelated classes. To assess its effectiveness, a set of psychodiagnostic techniques aimed at determining the level of resilience, professional resilience, coping strategies, basic beliefs, reflexivity, and communicative tolerance was used. The author’s programme was based on a five-component model of military doctor resilience, which covered motivational and value, cognitive and reflexive, emotional and volitional, behavioural, and communicative and regulatory components. Positive dynamics of the integral resilience index and more pronounced changes in the experimental group compared to the control group were established. The most noticeable changes were found in indicators of professional resilience, engagement, control, problem-solving planning, acceptance of responsibility, and basic beliefs. The practical significance of the study lies in the development of a programme that can be implemented in the system of psychological support, training and support of military medical specialists

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