Stress coping strategies among medical students and trainees in Saudi Arabia: a qualitative study

Abstract

Background Stress is very common among medical students and trainees. Chronic stress has multiple negative mental and physical health consequences. This study explores medical students and interns’ stressors and their coping strategies. Methods This is a qualitative study involving four focus group discussions with final year medical students (8 males, 10 females) and medical interns (8 males, 7 females). The study was conducted between October 2017 and January 2018 in the premises of a large medical school in Riyadh. After verbatim transcription, framework thematic analysis of the data was performed using NVivo software. Results Promoting the reward feeling of the medical profession was seen as an active stress-coping strategy among medical students. Planning and time management was seen by some participants as stressful while others felt it was a stress-coping strategy. The perception of stress among medical students was seen as a normal feeling. Avoiding discussions on medical matters, building relationships with the other sex and smoking were reported as avoidant stress-coping strategies. Conclusion Medical students and interns are still struggling to achieve healthy stress-coping strategies. There is a great need for stress management programs to help fostering the students’ coping skills.

Assessment of academic stress and its coping mechanisms among medical undergraduate students in a large Midwestern university

“…Previous studies have reported that medical students used active coping mechanisms (Al-Dubai et al 2011;Chawla and Sachdeva 2018;Gade et al 2014;Abouammoh et al 2020), positive reframing (Al-Dubai et al 2011;Chawla and Sachdeva 2018), planning (Chawla and Sachdeva 2018;Wu et al 2018), positive reappraisal (Wu et al 2018), emotional support (Chawla and Sachdeva 2018;Gade et al 2014), peer discussions (Oku et al 2015) and acceptance (Al-Dubai et al 2011;Chawla and Sachdeva 2018) as means for coping stress. There were minimal reports of usage of avoidance strategies for coping stress among medical students (Al-Dubai et al 2011;Chawla and Sachdeva 2018).…”

Study of student’s self-isolation adaptation strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic

“…Therefore, nonparametric methods were used as methods of mathematical processing of research results. Since current data on stress coping strategies show that there are gender-related differences in their use [25], the data are described based on respondents' gender. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to determine differences in the severity of adaptation strategies in self-isolating conditions among male and female representatives.…”

“…Women tend to passively submit to external pressure than men. It was previously noted that women use a more emotion-oriented approach and are more likely to use unhelpful (passive) coping strategies than men [47]. It was also found that boys aged 12-19, unlike girls of the same age, recommend that in the case of bullying the offender should be fought back, while girls recommend ignoring the offender [45].…”

“…But the authors note that a significant proportion of respondents use avoidance strategies. In general, students changed their attitude to studies, concentrating on its positive aspects, which allowed them to cope with difficult conditions [25]. In the study of bullying victims aged 12-19, it was found that in such situations they recommend using either passive strategies, such as avoidance, or risky ones, such as open confrontation [45].…”

“…Coping is defined as a set of cognitive and behavioral efforts aimed at managing conditions that exceed human capabilities [24]. The main purpose of coping is to reduce stress and achieve a balanced state of functioning [25]. There are different approaches to the classification of coping strategies.…”