DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2014.v02i06.054

Pages: 3111-3117

Medical education consists of imparting knowledge, health and development, necessary skills and applications of available sources to overcome stress. Stress in medical education is common and process-oriented. It often exerts a negative effect on their academic performance, physical health, and psychological well being. The aim was to study various stress factors, with specific objective to understand the stress factors and to know coping strategies among medical student. A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 400 medical students of 2nd to 5th year. A 35 item questionnaire was designed to assess the sources of stress and their severity. Coping strategies adopted by students were assessed by using a 14-item stress inventory, and a questionnaire based on 12 institutional stress-reducing factors was used to identify its role. Data analysis was done by using a 5-point Likert’s scale. The data was collected on Microsoft Excel 2007 sheets as percentage distribution and analyzed with SPSS. Coping strategies refer to specific efforts that people adopt to reduce, tolerate or minimize stress. The most common sources of stress were related to academics. The most common coping strategies adopted by the students were meditation, interaction with friends and hobbies like music, sports, etc. The students should be taught different stress management techniques to improve their ability to cope with a demanding professional course. The overall response rate was 93%.The study provided scope for adopting strategies intended to reduce students stress. Review of academics and examination schedules and patterns, better interaction with the faculty and proper guidance, intervention programmes and counselling for the stressed ones could help a lot to reduce the stress in medical students.