Background: Residents rely on social support from team members to navigate patient care, while also facing challenges integrating into the healthcare team. Although prior research has explored help-seeking behavior, little attention has been given to how residents overcome barriers to mobilizing social resources. This study explores how, in daily clinical practice, do residents perceive and respond to barriers in accessing and making use of social capital during challenging situations?

Methods: We used a mixed-methods social network approach. Twenty-nine junior residents from various specialties participated in qualitative interviews, supplemented by ego (personal) networks to encourage respondents’ reflection on social relationship dynamics.

Results: Qualitative ego network analysis revealed that residents encounter significant physical and psychological barriers, such as uncertainty and the perceived costs of seeking support, which limit access to crucial information and expertise. Quantitative ego network analysis showed that residents predominantly turned to supervisors, nurses, and peers in challenging situations. However, interviews highlighted the complexity of supervisory relationships, shaped by concerns about career impact. To navigate these barriers emotional support was sought from friends, parents, and close colleagues, while expertise was sought from supervisors, senior residents, and nurses.

Conclusion: Residents face significant barriers in mobilizing social capital, particularly with supervisors. To cope, they draw on different parts of their network for emotional support and expertise. Our results suggest that existing help-seeking models, such as Borgatti and Cross’s, require refinement: power dynamics contribute to the perceived ‘costs’ of help-seeking, and uncertainty about others’ supportive potential reflects the influence of role ambiguity and relational comfort.