Contemporary Issues in Well-being of Undergraduate Clinical Students: A Systematic Review

Chong Tze Lin,Tha Kyi Kyi,Lau Wee Ming

doi:10.21315/eimj2021.13.1.2

Chong Tze Lin, Tha Kyi Kyi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2021.13.1.2

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Abstract

Well-being is a complex concept with objective and subjective elements that contribute to life satisfaction. Medical students experience inevitable transition from pre-clinical to clinical training with increasingly more independence and responsibility. This study aimed to identify well-being issues in undergraduate clinical students. The emotional, physical, social, spiritual, occupational and intellectual aspects of well-being were focused on. A thorough literature search was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies reporting issues from the six aspects of well-being in undergraduate clinical students, and published in peer-reviewed journals in English language from the year 2000 to 2020 with full-text available online were included. The initial search from PubMed, OVID Medline, Psych INFO and CINAHL Plus retrieved 623 articles with 51 studies included in this review. Evidence from the previous studies demonstrated poor well-being among undergraduate clinical students. Stress, lack of exercise, low peer and family support, and mistreatment by clinicians and patients were common well-being issues encountered. Based on this literature review, the five aspects of well-being except the emotional aspect were less explored. Thus, it will be of interest to investigate well-being issues among Malaysian undergraduate clinical students from the physical and occupational aspects, which are further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify possible contributing factors. Undergraduate clinical students are faced with several well-being issues. Thus, early detection of these issues is important to avoid devastating consequences to students and patients.

Highlights

The definition of well-being has been proposed by numerous articles and remains a challenge until today [1–2]
Positive experience is equivalent to a high level of well-being and negative experience is associated with a low level of well-being [1]
The pre-specified eligibility criteria were studies that reviewed any aspects of wellbeing, clinical medical students as participants, validated instruments in assessing the prevalence of issues identified from each aspect of well-being, published in peer-reviewed journals, English language, full-text available online and published from the year 2000 to 2020

Summary

Introduction

The definition of well-being has been proposed by numerous articles and remains a challenge until today [1–2]. Work in 1989 identified autonomy, positive relationships with others, environmental mastery, purpose in life, self-acceptance and discovery of potential as aspects which constitute well-being [3], whereas later research focused on happiness, life satisfaction and the ability to fulfil goals [4–5]. The Oxford English Dictionary defines well-being as “the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy”. It is a concept which comprises objective and subjective elements [1]. The subjective elements look at an individual’s opinion on his or her own well-being. Positive experience is equivalent to a high level of well-being and negative experience is associated with a low level of well-being [1]

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