PERCEIVED STRESS IN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL AND NON-MEDICAL STUDENTS OF ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS – A COMPARATIVE STUD

Author(s):  
Deepa Devadas ◽  
Urmila Sinha ◽  
Sanjay Kumar

Background: First year of medical training is a challenging period in the life of medical students. Adjusting to a demanding medical curriculum along with sudden transition to a medical college environment makes first year medical students vulnerable to stress. No studies have been reported so far on stress in medical students from the Andaman& Nicobar Islands. Aim: To evaluate the levels of perceived stress and explore its causes in first year medical students of Andaman Islands and compare it with non medical age matched students. Materials & Methods: A comparative study was done on a total of 182 first year students (89 medical and 93 non-medicals) of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. After obtaining informed consent, an anonymous self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the study participants. The questionnaire included their sociodemographic details & Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and stressors. The data was analyzed using SPSS software version 21. Results: The mean PSS score as measured by PSS-10 was 23.9+/- 6.15 SD in medical and 18.82 +/- 5.58 SD in non medical students. Independent sample t test demonstrated higher levels of perceived stress in medical students as compared to non medical students. Chi square test revealed association of higher PSS scores with the medical course of study. The most common stressors described by first year medical students belonged to the academic domain. Conclusion: Higher levels of perceived stress occurs in medical students which highlights need for implementation of appropriate stress management strategies to help students adjust to the demanding curriculum. Keywords: Stress, medical education, undergraduate, medical students, PSS-10

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 216
Author(s):  
Theodora Teunissen ◽  
Joni Scholte ◽  
Fransica Van der Meulen ◽  
Antoinette Lagro-Janssen ◽  
Cornelia Fluit

Sex and gender are important determinants of healthcare that need to be taken into account for medical teaching. Education is more effective if tailored to students’ subjectively-perceived needs and connected to their prior knowledge and opinions. This study explored first-year medical students thoughts about sex and gender differences in general and in specifically in healthcare, and what their educational preferences are in learning about these concepts during their medical training. Therefore six focus groups were conducted with 26 first-year medical students, 7 male and 19 female students, within one Dutch medical faculty. The discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. After that a thematic analysis was performed which included descriptive coding, interpretative coding, and definition of overarching themes.  Three major themes were identified. (1) Students’ self-perception of concepts sex and gender, including three major domains: (a) The unavoidable allocation of individuals to groups, (b) The role of stereotypes, and (c) The effect of sex/gender on career choice options. (2) Students’ goal orientedness in learning about sex/gender. (3) Students’ struggles between the binary system of medicine and the complexity of reality. Continuous reflection during medical school might help medical students to acquire sex- and gender-sensitive competencies that can be applied in their future work. To increase awareness about the influence of sex and gender differences in healthcare and on career choices, we recommend addressing these themes explicitly early on in the medical curriculum.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. e039357
Author(s):  
Sara Sorrell ◽  
Halah Ibrahim

ObjectivesMedical school serves as a critical developmental period for future physicians, during which students begin to form a professional identity. Just as personal appearance, particularly clothing, is an important external expression of one’s personal identity, ‘uniforms’ in healthcare, including white coats and scrubs, symbolise status and a group identity. There are, however, limited studies on the impact of physician attire on medical students’ formation of professional identity. Accordingly, through qualitative analysis of written narratives, we sought to analyse medical students’ experiences of wearing professional physician attire, namely scrubs, and how the uniform impacted their confidence level, performance and behaviours, as well as their identity as future physicians.DesignQualitative analysis of medical student’s written narratives.SettingKhalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences (KU CMHS) is a new medical school in the United Arab Emirates, with an inaugural class of 30 students admitted in August 2019. It is the only medical school in the city of Abu Dhabi, and the only school in the country that follows a postgraduate medical curriculum.ParticipantsAll first year medical students at KU CMHS were purposively sampled.MethodsStudents completed a voluntary online anonymous questionnaire. We employed a social identity approach to data analysis. Thematic content analysis was conducted on their narratives to identify themes.ResultsWe identified three major themes, namely (1) emotions, (2) logistics and (3) interpersonal relationships.ConclusionsMedical students form early perceptions regarding physician attire and its impact on their professional identity. Engaging in conversations regarding professional attire with educators or mentors could provide an important opportunity for students to discuss and explore professional identity early in training.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Azmeer Khamisani ◽  
Shouli Tung ◽  
Erica N. Chirico

Author(s):  
Maria Mathew ◽  
Navya C J ◽  
Vidhu M Joshy

Coping strategies used by an individual for stress determine its effect on health and the body’s functioning. Academic challenges make the first year medical students disparately susceptible to it. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the first year undergraduate medical students of a private medical college in Thrissur, Kerala to find the prevalence of stress and the coping strategies used with the help of pretested and validated questionnaire containing the Perceived Stress Scale 10 (PSS-10) and Brief COPE Inventory. 73% of the students had moderate stress and, 20% of the students had high-stress scores. Self-distraction and religion {(6.66 ±1.52), (6.55 ±1.58)}were the most common coping strategies used by the boys and girls respectively. The prevalence of stress was high among the first year undergraduate medical students and those with high-stress scores were found to use maladaptive coping strategies.


Author(s):  
Srinivas Rao Ganta ◽  
Kiran Pamarthi ◽  
Lakshmi Prasad K. K.

Background: Organ transplantation is one of the greatest scientific advances and remains one of the most challenging and complex field of modern medicine. In the USA and UK, the organ donation rate is 26 and 14 per million, whereas in India, it is only 0.34 per million population. Healthcare professionals act as the critical link in the organ procurement process because they are the first individuals to establish relationship with the potential donors' family.Methods: An institution based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among first year undergraduate medical students during November 2017. Convenient sampling method was used to obtain the sample size. Out of 150 students in first year, 136 students fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were studied.Results: Out of 136 students who participated in the study, 58 (42.6%) were boys and 78 (57.4%) were girls. All the 136 (100%) students had heard about organ donation, but only 24 (17.6%) of them were aware of organ donation associations. Very few students (5, 3.6%) know about any law related to organ donation in India. Mass media like TV, Internet and Newspapers have played a major role in imparting awareness regarding organ donation among students besides relatives and friends. Majority of the students i.e. 104 (76.4%) were ready to donate their organs if need comes and two third of them accepted that they would allow organ donation from a member of their family after Brainstem death.Conclusions: There is a positive attitude of medical students towards organ donation but there is lack of sufficient knowledge on the topic. Improving their knowledge by including organ donation topic in medical curriculum can help to reduce this gap.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (02) ◽  
pp. 52-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Samanta ◽  
S. Ghosh

Stress among medical students is a growing concern worldwide. The objectives were to assess the perceived stress, its sources and its pattern among undergraduate medical students and to find out determinants of stress among them. This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 225 undergraduate medical students of three academic years of Bankura Sammilani medical college during March-June 2015.Data were collected using a pretested, semistructured, anonymous, self-administered questionnaire which consisted of Perceived Stress Scale -10 for assessment of stress . Data were analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) model was adopted to find determinants of stress. Proportion of stressed students was 38.2% and mean stress score was 18.41(SD±6.22). Female students were more stressed than male students. About 80% of students perceived ‘vast syllabus’ and ‘lack of attention and time from teacher’ as stressors. Around 50% of students reported ‘Worry about future’, ‘Own expectation of becoming doctor’, ‘Inadequate quantity and quality of food in hostel’ and ‘Lack of recreation’ as stressors. ‘Disturbed in-campus political environment’ was perceived as a source of stress by 42.2% students. In BLR model, only five stressors, ‘Relationship problem with partner/love affair’, ‘Quarrel/maladjustment with friends’, ‘Living away from home’, ‘Competitive environment’, ‘Lack of attention and time from teachers’ were found statistically significant. Most of the stressors were related to academic and psychological domains. Regular review and restructuring of medical curriculum, implementing in-campus health promotional measures for students to cope with stress are needed to address the issue.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A Moretti ◽  
Adriana O Camboim ◽  
Caroline A Ferrandez ◽  
Isabela C Etcheverria ◽  
Iaggo B Costa ◽  
...  

Background: Morbidity and mortality reduction in cardiac arrest depends upon early and effective care. Basic life support (BLS) measures encompass a series of procedures to be started outside the hospital usually by trained lay people. Therefore, it is key that lay caregivers retain knowledge and skills late after instruction. However, studies demonstrate loss of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills as early as 30 days after training, pending mostly on the caregiver professional background. In this study, we evaluated medical students’ retention skills at 6 months. Methods: Prospective case-control observational study. Medical students underwent a 40-hour BLS training program. CPR skills were evaluated immediately and 6 months after the course based on individual scores before and after training as well as on categorical stratification as excellent, good or poor. Data were compared using F-test, paired t-test and chi-square for categorical variables. A 95% confidence interval was used with a level of significance of 0.05. Results: Fifty first-year medical students (54% female) aged between 18 and 24 years were enrolled in the BLS training program. Total number of CPR steps accurately performed decreased after 6 months of training (10.8 vs . 12.5; p<0.001). Sex and age were not associated with performance. Categorical evaluation was considered excellent in 78% of the students immediately after training but decreased to 40% in 6 months (p<0.01). Hands-on basic skills were mostly lost within the period. Conclusion: First-year medical students lost hands-on skills after 6 months of training decreasing the efficacy of CPR measures which might affect outcomes of patients in cardiac arrest.


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