Association Between Learning Environment Interventions and Medical Student Well-being

Abstract Background There is increasing acknowledgment that medical training is stressful for students and can impact their well-being. An important aspect of this is self-determination and basic psychological need satisfaction. A better understanding of how medical student perceptions of the learning environment impacts their basic psychological needs for motivation, resilience, and well-being may help to create learning environments that support the needs of medical students and help them become better healthier physicians. We aim to add to the literature on this topic by examining this relationship through the lens of Self-Determination Theory. Methods A total of 400 students from all 4 years of the medical program at our institution were invited to complete an anonymous online survey, measuring basic need satisfaction/frustration (autonomy, competence, relatedness) within the learning environment, resilience, and psychological well-being. We used analysis of variance to assess the effect of gender, age, and year on all variables, with t-tests to compare subgroups. Structural equation modelling was performed to test a hypothesized model in which support of medical students’ basic needs would positively relate to their resilience and well-being. Results The response rate was 183/400 (46%). After data cleaning, 160 remained: 67 males (42%) and 93 females (58%). There were 67 first years (42%), 35 second years (22%), 30 third years (19%), and 28 fourth years (18%). The sample mean age was 25.8 years (SD = 4.1). A well-fitting model was confirmed to fit the data, χ2 = 3.15, df = 3, p = 0.369, RMSEA = 0.018, SRMR = 0.022, CFI = 0.999. Autonomy and relatedness satisfaction exerted direct effects on well-being. Competence satisfaction did so indirectly, through its direct effect on resilience. Female medical students had lower resilience scores compared to their male peers. Conclusions When medical students perceived their learning environment as supportive to their basic needs, it was associated with an increase in their psychological well-being. Satisfaction of competence, but not autonomy or relatedness, predicted an increase in their resilience. Fostering medical students’ basic needs for motivation, especially competence, is recommended to support their resilience and well-being. Further research is required to generalize these results further.

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Meditation buffers medical student compassion from the deleterious effects of depression.

10.31231/osf.io/jxdk8 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer S Mascaro ◽

Sean Kelley ◽

Alana Darcher ◽

Lobsang Negi ◽

Carol Worthman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Medical Students ◽

Medical School ◽

Well Being ◽

Daily Functioning ◽

Wait List ◽

School Students ◽

Social Emotions ◽

The Face ◽

Second Year

Increasing data suggest that for medical school students the stress of academic and psychologicaldemands can impair social emotions that are a core aspect of compassion and ultimately physiciancompetence. Few interventions have proven successful for enhancing physician compassion inways that persist in the face of suffering and that enable sustained caretaker well-being. To addressthis issue, the current study was designed to (1) investigate the feasibility of cognitively-basedcompassion training (CBCT) for second-year medical students, and (2) test whether CBCT decreasesdepression, enhances compassion, and improves daily functioning in medical students. Comparedto the wait-list group, students randomized to CBCT reported increased compassion, and decreasedloneliness and depression. Changes in compassion were most robust in individuals reporting highlevels of depression at baseline, suggesting that CBCT may benefit those most in need by breakingthe link between personal suffering and a concomitant drop in compassion

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Deploying Creative Thinking to Strengthen Entrepreneurial Capability Among University Students in Nigeria

Journal of Education and Research ◽

10.3126/jer.v8i2.27381 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 93-108

Author(s):

Akinjide Aboluwodi

Keyword(s):

Learning Environment ◽

University Students ◽

Creative Thinking ◽

Capability Approach ◽

Entrepreneurship Education ◽

Well Being ◽

Entrepreneurial Opportunity ◽

Sen’S Capability Approach

Most of the students studying entrepreneurship in Nigerian universities lack entrepreneurial capability- that is, they lack the freedom to pursue and achieve entrepreneurial opportunity. Freedom is seen here in terms of those conditions that must be in place for students to be able to carry out their entrepreneurship studies. These are conditions that support the well-being of the students and may be seen as having good shelter, being well nourished, being healthy, being able to do their normal studies among others. The paper examined why the presence of these conditions is likely to assist students to improve their creative thinking and strengthen their entrepreneurial capability. It explored Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, focusing on freedom, opportunities, and functionings to explain the required favourable conditions that make learning worthwhile for students, and how it accounts for students’ ability to strengthen their entrepreneurial capability. The paper argued for the deployment of creative thinking to strengthen entrepreneurial capability among students of entrepreneurship in universities in Nigeria. It concluded by urging universities in Nigeria to adopt relevant curriculum in addition to providing students with a decent learning environment to enable them to develop creative thinking that could be used in entrepreneurship education.

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Resilience training and medical student well‐being

The Clinical Teacher ◽

10.1111/tct.13025 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 428-429

Author(s):

Joshua Robert Breedon ◽

Lana Huang

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Well Being ◽

Resilience Training

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Development of a Positive Psychology Program (LAVENDER) for Preserving Medical Student Well-being: A Single-Arm Pilot Study

Global Advances in Health and Medicine ◽

10.1177/2164956120988481 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 216495612098848

Author(s):

Elaine O Cheung ◽

Ian Kwok ◽

Allison B Ludwig ◽

William Burton ◽

Xinzi Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Medical Students ◽

Positive Psychology ◽

Positive Emotion ◽

Albert Einstein College ◽

Albert Einstein ◽

Well Being ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Psychology Program

Background Mental health tends to worsen over the course of medical school, with steep declines in well-being in students’ clerkship year (M3). Positive emotion promotes adaptive coping to stress and may help preserve medical student well-being. Objective This study describes the development of LAVENDER (Leveraging Affect and Valuing Empathy for Nurturing Doctors’ Emotional Resilience), a program aimed at increasing positive emotion to preserve well-being in medical students. Methods We conducted a single-arm pilot of LAVENDER, a positive psychology intervention developed for medical students delivered in an interactive classroom format to a cohort of 157 third-year medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Our primary outcome was the acceptability of LAVENDER. We also examined preliminary efficacy using measures of emotion, stress and burnout collected at each intervention session. Results LAVENDER showed good acceptability: 76% of participants agreed that the LAVENDER skills were useful and 72% agreed that they would recommend the LAVENDER program to others. Qualitative feedback suggested that medical students enjoyed the program and found the skills to be useful for coping with stress, but also reported the following barriers to engagement: lack of time to practice the skills, resistance to the mandatory nature of the wellness sessions, and difficulty integrating the skills in daily life. We did not find support for the preliminary efficacy of LAVENDER for improving medical student well-being in students’ clerkship year. Participants showed decreases in positive emotion and increases in symptoms of burnout over the intervention period ( ps < .01). Conclusion The current paper describes the development and a single-arm pilot test of LAVENDER, a positive psychology program tailored for medical students. Although we found preliminary evidence for the acceptability of LAVENDER, we did not find support for the preliminary efficacy. Lessons learned and next steps for the program are discussed.

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Medical Student Engagement in a Virtual Learning Environment Positively Correlates with Course Performance and Satisfaction in Psychiatry

Medical Science Educator ◽

10.1007/s40670-021-01287-x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Larrilyn L. Grant ◽

Michael J. Opperman ◽

Brennan Schiller ◽

Jonathan Chastain ◽

Jennelle Durnett Richardson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Student Engagement ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Virtual Learning ◽

Virtual Learning Environment ◽

Course Performance

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Medical Student Perceptions of the Learning Environment at the End of the First Year

Academic Medicine ◽

10.1097/acm.0000000000001137 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 91 (9) ◽

pp. 1257-1262 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Susan E. Skochelak ◽

R. Brent Stansfield ◽

Lisette Dunham ◽

Michael Dekhtyar ◽

Larry D. Gruppen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Student Perceptions ◽

First Year

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The importance of social learning environment factors for affective well-being among students

Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties ◽

10.1080/13632752.2015.1053695 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 155-166 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ella Maria Cosmovici Idsoe

Keyword(s):

Social Learning ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Well Being ◽

Environment Factors

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The impact of learning environment disruption on medical student performance

Medical Education ◽

10.1111/medu.12065 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 47 (2) ◽

pp. 210-213 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Tim J Wilkinson ◽

Anthony N Ali ◽

Caroline J Bell ◽

Frances A Carter ◽

Chris M Frampton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Student Performance ◽

The Impact

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Determining Major Stressors for Students at a Private Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan, Using MSSQ.

10.53350/pjmhs211592880 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (9) ◽

pp. 2880-2886

Author(s):

Syed Hussain Raza Zaidi ◽

Sara Mukhtar ◽

Rahila Yasmeen ◽

Rehan Ahmed Khan ◽

Tayyaba Azhar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Well Being ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Mental Wellbeing ◽

Mild Stress ◽

Undergraduate Medical Students ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Medical Undergraduates ◽

Moderate Stress

Background: Undergraduate medical studies are tough and require long hours of study and thus can lead to significant stress for the students both physically and emotionally. Stress can affect a student’s mental wellbeing and can lead to anxiety, fatigue and depression. Medical undergraduates report a greater level of perceived stress then general population. We need to understand the stressors affecting the health of our students in order to prevent psychological and emotional consequences. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study using the Medical student stressor questionnaire (MSSQ) was designed to determine the different stressors that a medical student deals with during their educational career at the University College of Medicine (UCM) at University of Lahore (UOL). Student participation in this study was voluntary. 1st, 2nd and 3rd year MBBS students of UCM were included in the study. The questionnaire has 20 questions that determine the academic, interpersonal & intrapersonal, teaching and learning, social, drive and desire, and group activities related stressors. The students were further asked to answer questions related to their gender, study routine and physical activity. They were also asked about family and social support available to them. SPSS software version 23 was utilized for data analysis. Results: Data revealed that the 2nd and 3rd year students regard academic related stressors as the most bothersome for them, whereas the desire related stressors were regarded by them as causing mild to moderate stress. The remaining four domains were rated as causing only moderate stress. 1st year students graded the academic related stressors as the cause of most stress for them, while the teaching and learning related stressors, interpersonal related stressors and social related stressors were rated less than it. Drive and desire related stressors were regarded as causing mild stress. When we compared the data from all three years, we found that group activates related stressors were regarded as least stressful by 3rd year students. 3rd year MBBS students rated the intrapersonal & interpersonal stressors, social related stressors, drive and desire related stressors and group activity related stressors at a level that was lower than the 1st & 2nd year MBBS students. Conclusions: Academic related stressors and teaching and learning related stressors were rated as being most stressful by students of all three years. Institutions should take to make the learning environment less stressful for the students as continued stress can adversely affect the health and mental well-being of the students. Keywords: Undergraduate Medical Students, Stress, Medical student stressor questionnaire (MSSQ)

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