Determination of Hopelessness Levels of Final Year Students of The Faculty of Medicine

Abstract

Background: Hopelessness, which includes both the characteristics of depression and anxiety, is thought to be triggered by environmental stress. In case of hopelessness, emotional disorders, despair and inability to solve problems arise. This study was conducted to determine the level of hopelessness of the final year students in medical school and to determine whether there is a difference in the levels of hopelessness according to gender and age variables.Methods: A total of 124 medical faculty last year students, 60 of them (48.4%) male, were included in this study. Using the Beck's Hopelessness Scale Score, the hopelessness levels of the students and the three major aspects of hopelessness, i.e. feelings and expectations about the future, loss of motivation and hopes about the future were evaluated.Results: The mean Beck's Hopelessness Scale Score of the students was 6.29 . 30.6% of the students had no hopelessness, 48.4% had mild hopelessness, 13.7% had moderate hopelessness and 7.3% had severe hopelessness. No statistically significant difference was found between gender and age groups. For the students who preferred medical school to serve humanity, the mean Beck's Hopelessness Scale Score were significantly lower than those who did not prefer for this purpose; Beck's Hopelessness Scale Score means were found to be significantly higher for those who preferred to earn more money. While the majority of the students (89%) did not have any professional future concerns, it was found that the Beck's Hopelessness Scale Score mean was significantly higher in students who were concerned about not being able to earn enough in the future.Conclusion: It was found that the students' feelings and expectations about the future were not negative, the loss of motivation was not significant and the hopes about the future were quite high.