Abstract
Educational environment in medical schools is highly demanding and stressful due to various factors. The study was aimed to explore level of stress, stressors and the coping strategies among the undergraduate medical, dental and nursing students of a medical college in Kathmandu. A cross- sectional observational study was conducted among 174 consenting (95 medical, 51 dental and 28 nursing) first year undergraduate students with predesigned, pretested, semi-structured questionnaire which included socio-demographic details, Kessler psychological distress scale and Medical student stress questionnaire. Average age of students was 19.54±1.28 years. Results revealed that 66.66% of students were under stress with 25.86% having mild, 18.96% having moderate and 21.83% having severe levels of stress. Highest prevalence of stress was noted among nursing students (75.00%) with 32.14% under severe stress. Among 116 males and 58 females, males were more stressed (75.00%) than females (50.00%). Most of the students enjoyed music and chatted with their close ones to cope with stress. Academic related stressor was found to be the major stressor (2.65±0.69) with statistically significant association (p< 0.01) with the stress levels among the students. Informing students about the “must know” and “good to know” areas of the topics of every subject may be helpful to decrease the academic related stress. Regular practice of meditation, sports and cultural activities may help to reduce stress.
Highlights
Stress is defined as the body’s nonspecific response or reaction to demands made on it, or to disturbing events in the environment.[1,2] It is not just a stimulus or a response but it is a process by which we perceive and cope with environmental threats and challenges.[3]
Part 3: Medical Student Stress Questionnaire (MSSQ) that consisted of 40 items which are marked based on Likert scale from 0 to 4, each item which may be a potential source of stress
These stress factors are further grouped into 6 domains of stressors namely, Academic related stressors (ARS), Intra- and interpersonal related stressors (IRS), Teaching and learning related stressors (TLRS), Social related stressors (SRS), Drive and desire related stressors (DRS) and Group activity related stressors (GARS)
Summary
Stress is defined as the body’s nonspecific response or reaction to demands made on it, or to disturbing events in the environment.[1,2] It is not just a stimulus or a response but it is a process by which we perceive and cope with environmental threats and challenges.[3] Personal and environmental events that cause stress are known as stressors.[4,5] Stress may be physical or emotional. Linn and Zeppa stated that some stress in medical training is needed for learning.[6] the same stressors may be perceived differently by individuals, depending upon their cultural background, personal traits, experience and coping skills.[7] Undergraduate medical students especially those in first year, are exposed to tremendous stress as they face a sudden transition from the phase of rote learning to self-directed learning in college days. This study aimed to identify the level of stress and stressors
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