PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify post-operative discomfort, sense of loss, family support, and resilience in breast cancer surgery patients, and to investigate factors that affect resilience.METHOD: The sample of this study consisted of 108 patients who underwent surgery for breast cancer in two university hospitals located in B city. The collected data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Scheffé test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and hierarchical multiple regression.RESULTS: The factors that significantly affected resilience were as follows: having a religion (β=-.20, p=.006), having an occupation (β=.14, p=.049), having a high school diploma (β=.31 p=.001), making less than 2–3 million won (β=-.19, p=.036) per month, experiencing a sense of loss (β=-.22, p=.003) and family support (β=.44, p < .001). The total explanatory power amounted to 53.8% (F=14.83, p < .001, AdjR²=.54).CONCLUSION: Educational intervention programs for breast cancer surgery patients that improve resilience by reducing the sense of loss and increasing family support must be developed.