Chiropractic Interns' Perceptions of Stress and Confidence

Objective:We assessed the level of students' test anxiety, and the relationship between test anxiety and academic performance. Methods: We recruited 166 third-quarter students. The Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) was administered to all participants. Total scores from written examinations and objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) were used as response variables.Results: Multiple regression analysis shows that there was a modest, but statistically significant negative correlation between TAI scores and written exam scores, but not OSCE scores. Worry and emotionality were the best predictive models for written exam scores. Mean total anxiety and emotionality scores for females were significantly higher than those for males, but not worry scores. Conclusion: Moderate-to-high test anxiety was observed in 85% of the chiropractic students examined. However, total test anxiety, as measured by the TAI score, was a very weak predictive model for written exam performance. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that replacing total anxiety (TAI) with worry and emotionality (TAI subscales) produces a much more effective predictive model of written exam performance. Sex, age, highest current academic degree, and ethnicity contributed little additional predictive power in either regression model. Moreover, TAI scores were not found to be statistically significant predictors of physical exam skill performance, as measured by OSCEs.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Test anxiety and academic performance in chiropractic students*

Zhang¹,

Henderson²

2014

“…It was shown that they did not detect stressed students even though over half the students reported having had emotional or psychological problems that interfered with their academic work. These two medical studies, alongside the research by Spegman and Herrin, 19 highlight the importance of the transitional periods from preclinical to student-clinician to eventual practitioner as being particularly stressful periods in medical and chiropractic education with the internships or preceptorships representing major components of students' daily educational experience.…”

Section: Preceptorships/internships/outreachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One more internship study, 19 using mixed methods, explored interns' perceptions around stress and confidence during the midpoint, which included their internship period, of their professional training. This study showed that the interns considered stress and confidence important issues, with the findings revealing inverse relationships between stress and confidence with higher stress being inversely related to lower confidence.…”

Section: Preceptorships/internships/outreachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Some programs have even been assessing students' levels of confidence, embedded within research. 19 Overall, however, while the development of students' confidence in patient communication and clinical (physical) skills has been studied extensively in medical education, this is not the case in chiropractic educational research. This is somewhat surprising given that the chiropractic profession utilizes a physical skill (manipulation) as its primary mode of treatment, which is recognized as requiring a high quality of communication between practitioner and patient.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Importance of Building Confidence in Patient Communication and Clinical Skills Among Chiropractic Students

Hecimovich

Volet

2009

Purpose: One important objective of chiropractic education is to foster student professional confidence and competence in patient communication and clinical skills. Therefore, the aim of this article is to review the extant literature on this topic, stressing the significance of building students' confidence for effective practice and the need for more research in this area. Methods: The authors reviewed MEDLINE and ERIC from 1980 through 2008 using several key words pertinent to confidence and health care. Three distinct, but interrelated, bodies of literature were assessed, including professional confidence in health care research, the nature and development of confidence in educational psychology research, and fostering professional confidence in chiropractic education. Results: It was apparent through the review that chiropractic education has developed educational methods and opportunities that may help develop and build student confidence in patient communication and clinical skills. However, there has not been sufficient research to provide empirical evidence of the impact. Conclusion: Fostering chiropractic students' development of confidence in what they say and do is of paramount importance not only to them as new practitioners but more importantly to the patient. There is no doubt that a better understanding of how confidence can be developed and consolidated during tertiary study should be a major goal of chiropractic education. (J Chiropr Educ 2009;23(2):151-164)

“…11 At the same time, data from a study by Kizhakkeveettil et al 12 that uses the validated perceived stress scale (PSS-10) suggests that stress levels were not statistically significantly different across terms. Another study done by Spegman et al 13 indicates that chiropractic students experience multiple sources of stress, and this stress negatively influences student confidence levels. Also, a study among 116 chiropractic students done by Zhang et al 14 showed that students experience high levels of stress while performing an objective clinical examination, and these stress levels negatively impact their performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived stress and fatigue among students in a doctor of chiropractic training program

Kizhakkeveettil¹,

Vosko²,

Brash³

et al. 2017

Objective: High levels of stress and fatigue are associated with decreased academic success, well-being, and quality of life. The objective of this research was to quantify levels of perceived stress and fatigue among chiropractic students to identify sources of and student coping mechanisms for perceived stress and fatigue and to identify the relationship between students' perceived stress and fatigue. Methods: A survey comprised of the Perceived Stress Scale, the Undergraduate Sources of Stress Survey, and the Piper Fatigue Scale was administered to chiropractic students in their 2nd, 5th, and 8th trimesters of doctoral study. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, 1-way analysis of variance, and linear correlation tests. Results: Students reported having moderate to high levels of stress and fatigue, with higher levels of stress and fatigue seen in women than in men. A nonsignificant difference among stress scores and a significant difference among fatigue scores were observed based on program term. Levels of stress predicted levels of fatigue, and stress was strongly correlated with psychological health, relationships with family members, mood, and need for learning accommodations. Fatigue was strongly correlated with psychological health, academic demands, and conflicts between studies and other activities. Conclusion: There are differences in the reporting of perceived stress and fatigue levels in this chiropractic student population based on gender. The correlation between fatigue and stress also suggests that measures that may alleviate one may likely affect the other.