Perception of Stress and Coping Strategies by 1st year Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Medical education is supposed to be stressful and great level of stress may have a damaging effect on cognitive functioning and education of the students in a medical school. Study design: Cross sectional study Aim: To evaluate the perception of stress among medical students and to explore its coping strategies by medical students. Methods: A total of 300 first-year medical students at Sargodha Medical College, Sargodha (125 males, 175 females) were invited to fill-in a self-administered questionnaire on the last day of the 20122013 academic year. The questionnaire comprised 20 items on stress factors and 15 items on coping strategies. The responses were measured quantitatively on a five-point Likert scale. Results: The response rate was 60. The stress factors recognized by students were concern about trying to learn all the content followed by difficulty in memorizing content, lack of time to study and occurrence of multiple tests at the same time. The coping techniques were getting together with family and friends, going out to dinner, eating well and walk, avoid comparing grades with other students. Conclusion: The occurrence of apparent stress among medical students was elevated and this might influence not only their academic grades but also all phases of health and life. There is a broad collection of strategies for coping with stress and these strategies could play an important role in facilitating students cope with stress.