Graduate entry and undergraduate medical students' study approaches, stress levels and ways of coping: a five year longitudinal study.

Sally Sandover,Timothy Marr,Diana Jonas-Dwyer

doi:10.1186/s12909-015-0284-7

Sally Sandover, Timothy Marr + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-015-0284-7

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Abstract

BackgroundIncorporating graduate students into undergraduate medical degree programs is a commonly accepted practice. However, it has only recently been recognized that these two types of students cope with their studies in various ways. The aim was to compare the learning approaches, stress levels and ways of coping of undergraduate (UG) and graduate entry medical students (GEMP) throughout their medical course.MethodsFrom 2007–2011 each of the five year cohorts of undergraduate and GEMP students completed four components of the study. The components included demographics, The Biggs’ R-SPQ-2 F questionnaire which determines students’ approaches to learning, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) used to rate students perceived stress during the past four weeks, and the Ways of Coping (WOC) questionnaire used to assess students’ methods of coping with everyday problems.ResultsThere was a consistent difference between UG and GEMP students approaches to learning over the five years. GEMP students preferred a deep approach while the UG students preferred a superficial approach to learning. This difference became more obvious in the clinical years. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in stress levels. There were consistent differences in the ways the two groups coped with stress.ConclusionsThere were significant differences in approaches to learning and ways of coping with stress between the UG and the GEMP students. These need to be considered when introducing curriculum change, in particular, redesigning an UG program for post graduate delivery.

Highlights

Incorporating graduate students into undergraduate medical degree programs is a commonly accepted practice
Graduate Entry Medical Program (GEMP) students showed a preference for all levels of deep learning and UG students showed a preference for all levels of superficial learning
The results indicate that UG students favour ‘confrontive coping’, ‘distancing’, ‘accepting responsibility’ and ‘escape avoidance’ as strategies compared with GEMP students who favour ‘planful problem solving’

Summary

Introduction

Incorporating graduate students into undergraduate medical degree programs is a commonly accepted practice. It has only recently been recognized that these two types of students cope with their studies in various ways. The aim was to compare the learning approaches, stress levels and ways of coping of undergraduate (UG) and graduate entry medical students (GEMP) throughout their medical course. The combining of graduate students into an undergraduate medical program raised a number of issues concerning the various ways students can learn and cope with the stresses of study. A review of the literature on medical students’ learning approaches, stress levels, and ways of coping revealed that measuring these processes is complex and can be influenced by many factors. According to Entwistle and Peterson the context of the learning setting affects student learning because they try to identify what is expected of them according to their past experiences as well as through the current social setting [1]

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