A review of the literature revealed a variety of dis- ciplines that utilize the term “resilience.” For example, it is commonly used in the literature pertaining to ecol- ogy and conditions of the environment, microbiology, and studies involving cellular regeneration, materials processing, and different aspects of engineering, busi- ness, and economics, such as the stock market and
corporate resilience. To narrow the search, the focus was shifted to human resilience and the processes that humans experience in relation to resilience. The major- ity of the literature was found in the disciplines of psy- chology and psychiatry and was described primarily by qualitative approaches to understanding resilience in children. Nursing and medicine have also studied and written about resilience in specific specialty areas that include mental health, posttraumatic stress disor- der (PTSD), breast cancer survivors, eating disorders, aging and the elderly, and cardiac stent placement patients, to name a few.