Empirical research is of crucial importance to understand, build and support resilient systems and processes, including exploring and developing interventions to improve capacity for adaptive change in a prehospital setting.

Handling and initiating of treatment in a prehospital setting are complex processes that involve many treatment options and include several parts of the chain of survival. Capacity to adapt to unexpected changes in the patients’ conditions or in the surroundings is a prerequisite for patient safety.

Outside the healthcare sector, safety science is moving from an approach focused on the analysis and management of error (Safety I) to instead understanding the inherent properties of safety systems (Safety II).

In healthcare the attention to why service providers are able to succeed under challenging conditions remains sparse.

The aim of this commentary is to give a better understanding of how the concept and inclusion of resilience can inspire a new approach for future research in prehospital settings.

So far, most resilience studies have been conducted in emergency departments while the role of contextual factors and adaptations in a prehospital setting has remained unexplored.

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