PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS IN MEDICAL STUDENTS: A COMPARISON OF TWO VERY DIFFERENT UNIVERSITY COURSES

✍ Scribed by GUTHRIE, E. A. ;BLACK, D. ;SHAW, C. M. ;HAMILTON, J. ;CREED, F. H. ;TOMENSON, B.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 121 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0748-8386
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1700(199707)13:3<179::aid-smi740>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

This study compared the psychological morbidity of medical students in their ®rst year of medical training at two dierent medical schools. One medical school had a 5-year course: 2 years intensive preclinical training followed by 3 years clinical work. The second medical school had a 6-year course: a 3-year degree course in basic medical sciences followed by 3 years clinical work. Students on both courses were asked to complete the General Health Questionnaire, the Stress Incident Record and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The students on the ®rst course reported signi®cantly higher amounts of stress related to course work than the students on the second course (w 2 24X4Y df 1Y p `0X001), but there was no dierence in the prevalence of psychological morbidity between the students on the two courses (z À1X377Y p 0X168). Psychological morbidity was most closely associated with thoughts of dropping out, stressful relationships with other medical students and stress related to dissection. The ®ndings suggest that medical students have high rates of psychological disturbance during the ®rst year of their training, which are not explained by marked dierences in the type of training they receive. Reduction in psychological morbidity may be best achieved by targeting those students who are reporting psychological distress or thinking of dropping out.