BackgroundThroughout the world all health professionals face stress because of time-pressures, workload, multiple roles and emotional issues. Stress does not only exist among the health professionals but also in medical students. Bangladesh has currently 77 medical colleges 54 of which are private. This study was designed to collect baseline data of stress-level among Bangladeshi students, which we believe will form the basis for further in depth studies.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on medical students from 2 public and 6 private medical-schools in Bangladesh. All medical schools have common curriculum formulated by the Government of Bangladesh. The study population was 1,363 medical students of Year-III and IV of academic session 2013/2014. Universal sampling technique was used. The period of study was February to June 2014. Data was collected using a validated instrument, compiled and analysed using SPSS version-20.ResultsA total of 990 (73%) out 1,363 medical students participated in the study, of which 36% were male and 64% were female. The overall prevalence of stress of the study population was 54%. 53% of male and 55% of female were reported suffering from stress. 54% of Year-III students and 55% of Year-IV were noted suffering from stress. There was statistically significant (p = 0.005) differences in the level of stress between public (2.84 ± 0.59) and private (2.73 ± 0.57) medical schools student.ConclusionsMore than half of Bangladeshi medical students are suffering from measureable academic stress. It would be pertinent if the relevant authorities could address the issue so as to provide a conducive medical learning environment.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-015-1295-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v1i1.13227South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2011:1:73-74

Every medical graduate must have the intention to prescribe rationally. It is pharmacology which teaches rational of prescribing correct drug in undergraduate medical course. Therefore many eminent medical educationists believe that pharmacology is the most essential part of the medical curriculum. Medical graduates join as interns in their respective teaching hospital immediately after graduation. Although interns work is usually under the supervision of a senior consultant but there are occasions, when they need to make their own decision. Again drug market in Bangladesh, like many other countries, is rapidly expanding. Henceforth, interns' are sometime confused to choose a drug from therapeutic choices. This study was conducted with the intention to provide some light about the knowledge of pharmacology among the Bangladeshi interns. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on Interns (n=191) of six medical schools of Bangladesh. Validated instrument was used to uptake the data. These medical schools are both government and private but Bangladesh has unique curriculum for all medical schools. Out of these 191 participants 81 (42%) rated pharmacology knowledge is good, while another 77 (40%) had average understanding. As high as 80% (152) intern population feel that undergraduate training has prepared them to prescribe safely. One hundred seventeen (61%) interns have already observed cases of adverse drug reactions in their short active clinical life. Although it is a cross sectional study with its limitations, has identified that pharmacology and therapeutics course curriculum is not enough to produce safe prescribers.