The impact of resilience training for supervisors on the development of resilience in physiotherapy students during internships in clinical practice: a randomized controlled questionnaire study

Background Physiotherapy is among the top ten professions facing a skilled labour shortage in Germany. Around 33% of students drop out annually. One factor is low resilience, especially during internships when students face patient-related stressors. Low resilience may hinder stress management and coping with setbacks. The aim of the study was to examine whether supervision by resilience-trained internship supervisors affects students’ resilience differently to untrained supervision, and whether students with low initial resilience benefit more than students with low resilience. Methods Four internship supervisors received training on resilience and how to promote it. Resilience was assessed using a digital questionnaire, including socio-demographic data, the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10) and the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA). The first measurement (t 0 ) occurred at the end of the internship supervisors’ training, and the second (t 1 ) two months later. Students supervised by trained internship supervisors formed the intervention group, those with untrained internship supervisors formed the control group. Data was analysed using JASP to identify significant changes and correlations. Results The intervention group showed a statistically significant improvement from t 0 -t 1 in CD-RISC-10 scores ( p  = 0.009; d  = 0.585). Group comparisons revealed that the intervention group improved significantly in both CD-RISC-10 ( p  = 0.004) and RSA ( p  = 0.038), whereas the control group did not show significant improvements. Additionally, a strong negative correlation was found between initial resilience levels and improvement in the intervention group (CD-RISC-10: r p = -0.686, p  < 0.001; RSA: r p = -0.592, p  = 0.002), indicating that those with lower initial resilience benefited more. Conclusion The results of the study therefore offer initial insights into the resilience of the students and the possible effect of training the teachers. This study introduces the development of a resilience concept that could be developed with the help of additional research. Trial registration: The study was registered in the Open Science Framework on 17.09.2023 (DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/3TMYW ). The study was also retrospectively registered in the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS; DRKS00041437) on 02 September 2026.