Impact of the Perceived Mental Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Students' Loneliness Feelings and Future Career Choice: A Preliminary Survey Study.

Qiuyue Zheng,Xianhao Lin,Thomas Freudenreich,Lin He,Tao Liu

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.666588

Qiuyue Zheng, Xianhao Lin + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.666588

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Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic continues to unfold globally, and its negative impact on the public's mental health is starting to reveal. Serving as reserve talents for the healthcare system, medical students are not yet professionally matured enough to face one of the worst global public health crises. This may exert increased mental stress and loneliness feelings, which in turn negatively influence medical students' future career choice. To address the issue, we conducted three online survey studies investigating how the epidemic affects the mental health as well as career attitude of medical students in China during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The results revealed preliminary evidence showing that the perceived stress induced by the COVID-19 epidemic might negatively affect medical students' future career choice, and the feeling of loneliness may play a mediating role. This study invites more attention to medical students' mental health during severe public health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has affected the lives of billions worldwide
The results revealed preliminary evidence showing that the perceived stress induced by the COVID-19 epidemic might negatively affect medical students’ future career choice, and the feeling of loneliness may play a mediating role
This study aimed to examine the negative impact of perceived mental stress during the COVID-19 pandemic on medical students’ attitude toward their future career choice, and to further uncover the mediating role of loneliness

Summary

Introduction

The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has affected the lives of billions worldwide. Multidisciplinary researchers have been calling for attention to the mental health in various groups [3,4,5], among which understanding how the pandemic affects medical students is an important issue [6]. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a heavy burden on the global health system, and soon medical demand could outpace the medical capacity globally [7]. This means we need all workforce available, and some countries have already moved their senior medical students to early graduation [8, 9]. While being in training, medical students are missing the experience to deal with such severe situations, potentially leading to increased mental stress and in turn negatively influence their future career choice [10, 11]

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