Stress in medical students of Thammasat University

Abstract

Objectives and Methods: This study aimed to find out stress levels and stressors as well as coping methods after stress in medical students at clinical level of Thammasat University, Thailand.

Results: 73.67% of medical students at clinical level felt stress more than normal daily level. The odds ratiowas 1.48 compared with general population. There was no difference between stress levelsamong genders and academic years. Four major stressors causing high and severe anxiety werean examination (35.70%), changing from pre-clinical to clinical year (31.30%), writing patientûsreports (22.50%), and examination grades (20.90%) respectively. Almost half of them (41.90%) wereunwilling to consult a supervisor and 12.12% believed that counselling a super visor would affectthe future career life. However, only 2.21% were found drinking alcohol or smoking as copingmethods.

Conclusion: Although stress is a common mental health issue in medical students, sometimes it can bedefined as functional stress, i.e. being source of challenge or performance enhancer. Thus,future research about correlation between stress and quality of life or performance of medicalstudents would be advantageous to manage stress in a medical school environment.

Key words: Stress, Medical students