Objectives: To determine the contextual factors responsible for stress and anxiety in undergraduate medical students. Study Design: Qualitative Study. Setting: Islamic International Medical College, Al Mizan Campus, Riphah University, Rawalpindi. Period: 04th April 2019 to 03rd October 2019. Material & Methods: This qualitative exploratory studied was conducted at Islamic International Medical College Rawalpindi from April to October 2019 with the help of semi structured interviews each lasting for about thirty minutes conducted from final year medical students and the data was analyzed to establish the factors responsible for stress in medical students. Results: The study revealed academic and non academic reasons for stress in medical students’ time of graduation. Fear of examinations came at the top of the list of stress causing factors followed by hectic time tables, challenging clinical environment, lack of feedback by clinicians, lack of structured clinical training, non conducive learning environment, time management issues, peer pressure, pressure from parents to achieve academic excellence, less number of leisure hours, lack of sleep and finally the issues of attendance. Conclusion: Majority of final year students experienced stress in their medical life which was due to social factors, academics reasons and non academic issues.

Aims: (a) To compare career choice motivations between medical and dental students from the same institution and (b) To compare career choice motivations between male and female students at the institution. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study where 304 students answered a questionnaire regarding career choice motivations. Responses consisted of 6 dimensions and 18 items. SPSS 23 was used for data analysis. Results: Both medical and dental students gave similar responses to career choice motivators with only one item showing a significant difference, diverse career opportunities, favoured more by medical students (p=.032). Both groups were more motivated by professional status and opportunity to care for people, less by working hours and high income. Genders showed significant differences in the dimensions of status and security (p=.004), and nature of occupation (p=.0001), with males scoring higher. From individual items, professional status was the highest motivator (92% males, 84.5% females). The lowest motivators for males was high income and regular working hours (both 60%) and regular working hours for females (31.1%) followed by high income (42.7%). Significant differences were seen in secure career (p=.004), regular working hours, (p=.0001), opportunity for self-employment (p=.013), use of manual skills (p=.012), general interest in science (p=.043), and high income (p=.0001), all favoured more by males. Conclusion: Both medical and dental students selected their careers for mainly professional and altruistic considerations rather than monetary gain, however, males were more highly motivated by status, security and income compared to females. Keywords: Career choice, dental students, gender, medical students, motivation.

Background and Objective: Mental health has proved to affect the physical and emotional aspects of one's life. Appreciation of its influence on the physical functionality and efficacy of an individual may provide better treatment plans and coping strategies. This study was designed to find out the frequency of depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students at different levels of education, taking gender differences into account and its relation to chronic fatigue syndrome. Methods:This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out from October 2017 -March 2018. Standardized questionnaire was given to 270 MBBS students of Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Medical College, Lahore. The sampling method was non probability convenience sampling. The participants gave free consent. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.Results: Out of the 270 candidates, 246 had fatigue. Females scored higher on both questionnaires and showed greater frequency of fatigue and mental health problems like stress [P = 0.004]. Over all mental health traits showed statistically significant association with chronic fatigue (P = 0.001). Conclusion:Frequency of chronic fatigue among medical students suffering from anxiety, depression and stress is higher as compared to normal students. Female students suffer more from chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, anxiety and stress as compared to males. Strategies to evaluate and rigorously review medical student's mental problems, and devising appropriate coping mechanisms is essential for their well-being and optimum health.

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