Immediate psychological responses during the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic among Bangladeshi medical students

The initial period adjusting to the roles and responsibilities of a new foundation doctor can be a challenging and anxious time for graduating medical students and new trainees. Over recent years, many educational initiatives such as shadowing placements, assistantships and compulsory induction programmes have been implemented to improve medical student preparedness for clinical practice. Despite this, many graduates still report a lack of confidence and preparedness when starting their clinical placements, specifically within the context of on-call shifts. Bleep Roulette simulation sessions are progressively being used to further bridge the gap from student to trainee and ensure trainees develop prioritisation, organisational and clinical reasoning skills, improving trainee efficiency during an on-call shift. In this article, we provide 10 tips for medical educators, detailing how to design an efficacious Bleep Roulette session for final year medical students and new foundation trainees.

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Lockdown during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Psychological Responses and Coping Strategies among Medical Students in a Public University in Malaysia

Ulum Islamiyyah ◽

10.33102/uij.vol33no1.279 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 4-22

Author(s):

Chuong Hock Ting ◽

Aik Kai Tew ◽

Joel Petrus Chin ◽

Jia Yi Lim ◽

Rubeni Siva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Demographic Data ◽

World Health ◽

Psychological Responses ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Depression Anxiety Stress Scale ◽

Avoidance Coping ◽

Brief Cope

World Health Organization (WHO) had promulgated Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic in the early year 2020. Following that, the National Security Council of Malaysia had announced the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020 to curb the disease. This social distancing measure had inevitably induced undesirable psychological responses among the public, including medical students. In this study, we aim to determine the psychological responses of medical students during the MCO period and their coping strategies. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 245 medical students of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) from 24th to 30th April 2020, using an online questionnaire comprising demographic data, Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21), and Brief COPE questionnaire. Nearly 30% of medical students experienced stress, anxiety, or depression. Among all, 9.4% had reported severe anxiety. There were significant differences between avoidance coping strategies and negative psychological responses. In general, the medical students preferred approach coping strategies (M = 29.19, SD = 9.27). Religion (M= 5.62, SD =2.10) was the most favored coping strategy while the least had abused substance (M=2.16, SD.77). A significant statistical difference was revealed in the choice of coping between the genders, for positive reframing, religion, humour, and substance abuse. Pre-clinical students were noted to have significant stress and anxiety levels and more inclined to use avoidance coping strategies. Psychological interventions are essential to address the mental health problems among university students during current and future disasters based on the understanding of their coping strategies.

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Medical students’ psychological and behavioral responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: A descriptive phenomenological study

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/13591045211056922 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 135910452110569

Author(s):

Forough Mortazavi ◽

Fatemeh Ghardashi

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Phenomenological Study ◽

Online Courses ◽

Skill Training ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

Psychological Responses ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Group Discussions ◽

Psychological Reactions ◽

Application Data

On February 19, 2020, the Iranian government officially confirmed the first deaths due to COVID-19 and within a week, all universities were closed. The purpose of this study is to explore Iranian medical students' psychological and behavioral responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This descriptive phenomenological study was conducted on 52 medical students. Data were collected using a purposive sampling method by means of synchronous virtual focus group discussions which were conducted using the WhatsApp messaging application. Data were analyzed using the MAXQDA software version 2020. Data analysis resulted in the emergence of three categories consisting of psychological responses to the pandemic and the behavioral and psychological responses to the quarantine. Most of the extracted themes are related to students’ psychological reactions to the pandemic. During the quarantine period, students suffered from uncertainty, experienced boredom, worried about delay in their graduation, and were concerned about losing employment opportunities. Medical students must be prepared for crisis situations like the present pandemic. We recommend that online courses and training programs be developed with the aim of offsetting the negative effects of university closure on students’ education and skill training.

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SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING READINESS IN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS – A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

10.36106/gjra/8007379 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 13-17

Author(s):

Sanober Wasim ◽

Lokavarapu Manoj Joshua ◽

M Salahuddin Ansari ◽

Vartika Saxena ◽

Farhanul Huda

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Initial Period ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Self Control ◽

Medium Of Instruction ◽

Undergraduate Medical Students ◽

Self Directed Learning ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Tertiary Teaching ◽

Directed Learning

Background: Self-Directed Learning (SDL) is a way of learning. A learner takes responsibility for his/her learning by formulating learning goals and identifying resources to achieve the same. Objectives: The current study was conducted to know the level of SDL readiness in undergraduate medical students in a tertiary teaching hospital and to see the correlation between SDLRS score and demographic parameters across different years of study so that appropriate recommendations may be provided for teaching delivery. Methods: SDLRS Likert scale questionnaire was administered to 302 medical undergraduates across the rst to the ninth semester in paper form during August-October 2018. It consists of 40 questions categorized under three domains, namely Selfmanagement (9 items), Desire for learning (13 items), Self-Control (18 items). Results: The present study included 302 participants. The average SDL score is 149.8.47 % of the students included in the current study have scores <150. The current study shows that there is no signicant association between Gender (P=0.30), Current Age (P=0.07), age at admission into the medical course (P=0.75), and level of SDL readiness. Students who had English and Hindi as a medium of instruction before admission to medical school have better SDL scores than those whose medium of instruction was in either one of the languages(P=0.005). In addition, students from the third semester have signicantly higher SDL scores than students from other semesters (P=0.04). Conclusions: Since the SDL scores are low in these students, they require more teacher-led discussions, demonstrations, and lectures in the initial period rather than independent projects, case studies, and private tutorials.

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Immediate psychological responses during the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic among Bangladeshi medical students

10.31234/osf.io/9fdu2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

M Tasdik Hasan ◽

Sahadat Hossain ◽

Farhana Safa

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Health Status ◽

Medical Students ◽

Initial Period ◽

Psychological Impact ◽

Depression Scale ◽

Psychological Needs ◽

Mental Health Status ◽

Potential Contribution

Background: The most recent global pandemic of COVID-19 has been creating multidimensional damages, including a detrimental impact on the mental health status of individuals. Medical students, a vulnerable cross-section of the population, may have perceived a myriad of psychological stressors during this crisis in the background of their prevailing stressful academic pressure and preexisting higher psychological and mental health issue.Objective: To determine the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms and to elucidate the psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Bangladeshi medical students.Method: A cross-sectional study design was utilized to conduct this survey. The online survey including demographic questions, COVID-19 related questions, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; higher scores on the subscales indicate higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms), was completed by 425 Bangladeshi medical students. Collected data were statistically analyzed by using SPSS (version 25.0) software.Result: The HADS anxiety subscale revealed that 65.9% of the medical students had different levels of anxiety, ranging from mild (27.3%), moderate (26.8%), and severe (11.8%). As per HADS depression subscale, 49.9% of the medical students had varying degrees of depressive symptoms, with 3.3% of the participants had suffered from severely severe depressive symptoms. Female students had a relatively more anxiety and depressive symptoms, when compared with males. The students, who were severely tensed of getting infected by the virus, were at higher risk of suffering from anxiety (3.5-fold) and depressive (2.7-fold) symptoms, when compared with no/minimally stressed students. Besides, fear of getting assaulted or humiliated on the way to hospital or home, not to be able to give maximum concentration on study after COVID-19 pandemic, students’ present emotional status (agitation), had statistically significant higher risk of anxiety.Conclusion: A substantial proportion of Bangladeshi medical students are experiencing pandemic-related adverse psychological impact. The poor mental health conditions of these vulnerable medical students pose important threat to their potential contribution in future health care. Thus, medical colleges and health authorities should focus on addressing their psychological needs and formulate effective strategies to ameliorate medical students’ mental health status, particularly during any infectious disease outbreak.

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