Stress, Burnout, and Coping among First-Year Medical Undergraduates

Abstract

Background and Objectives Stress, burnout, and coping have been found to be interlinked with each other. Several adverse psychological outcomes have been associated with stress and burnout. Improving coping can decrease the stress and burnout. There is limited literature on perceived stress, coping, and burnout among first-year medical undergraduates from India. With this background, the study aimed to assess perceived stress, coping, and burnout among first-year medical undergraduates. Methods It was a cross-sectional study assessing 100 undergraduates studying in the first year of medical school. Medical Students Stressor Questionnaire, Brief COPE questionnaire, and Maslach burnout inventory–student survey were applied for assessment of perceived stress, burnout, and coping, respectively. Socio-demographic profile was assessed by a semi-structured proforma. Results Majority of students reported facing moderate level of stress in most of the domains, with stress being the highest for the academic aspects and least for social-related and drive- and desire-related areas. The stress was significantly greater in female students. Burnout was identified in 62% students by two-dimensional criteria and 30% by three-dimensional criteria. Among the coping strategies, active coping was most commonly used and substance use was less commonly used. No differences were found in coping between males and females except for active coping, which was significantly better in females. Conclusion The stress was of moderate degree in majority of students and academic stress was the most common stress. Burnout was present in at least one-third of the students. However, majority of the students practiced active coping.

The impact of social support and stress on academic burnout among medical students in online learning: The mediating role of resilience

“…Results of this study indicated that stress has a positive effect on academic burnout in the online learning process of medical students, indicating that it is one of the important risk factors of academic burnout, and the occurrence of academic burnout should be avoided by regulating students' stress in online learning; thus, H1a was supported. This finding was in line with prior studies which confirmed that stress was interlinked with academic burnout among medical students [e.g., (66)(67)(68)]. Guruprakash et al (66) pointed out that after experiencing great stress, medical students would show painful emotions and have relatively higher scores for burnout.…”

Analyzing Response Time for Assessing the Adaptation Stress in First-Year Healthy Medical Students

“…By the results of our study, we argue, that there are no personal problems, and there is no stress in first-year male medical students compared to second-year students. Seems first-year stress is more associated with stressful learning and not with any personal problems as revealed in previous publications cited in the section introduction (Guthrie, et al, 1997;Moffat, McConnachie, Ross, & Morrison, 2004;Nowreen & Ahad, 2019;Damiano et al, 2021;Nebhinani, Kuppili, & Mamta, 2021).…”

“…On a personal level, this stress can diminish one's capabilities and the importance of a future profession (Dyrbye, Thomas, & Shanafelt, 2005;Guthrie, et al, 1997;Moffat, McConnachie, Ross, & Morrison, 2004;Aktekin et al, 2001). Studies found that the most important stressors related to academic performance and the learning environment (Nowreen & Ahad, 2019;Damiano et al, 2021;Nebhinani, Kuppili, & Mamta, 2021).…”

Burnout in Israeli medical students: a national survey

“…Although the exact prevalence varies amongst reported studies [14], burnout rates of up to 49.6% have been reported for medical students [15][16][17]. Different reports from around the world have found medical student burnout rates of 9.09-62% in Asia [18][19][20][21], 15.05-46% in Europe [22][23][24][25][26], 13-75% in the Middle East [27,28], 49% in North America [29], 12-44.9% in South America [30][31][32], and 20% in New Zealand.…”