#FeesMustFall2016: Perceived and measured effect on clinical medical students

Abstract

Medical school is a highly competitive and stressful environment for most medical students. [1] The prevalence of stress experienced by medical students has been reported to vary between 41.9% and 63.7% in different parts of the world. [2-4] Two South African (SA) studies reported stress levels as high as 78% among medical students. [5,6] Information overload, lack of holidays, difficulty with transport to training sites, and socially related factors in the clinical environment are some of the issues that contribute to the stress experienced by medical students. [2,7,8] It is therefore not surprising that studies have found medical students to be more distressed than students in any other undergraduate course. [2,3] The effect of added external stress on already high levels of stress is unpredictable. [9] It can be expected that added uncontrollable external stress may have negative effects on already stressed individuals such as medical students. The September/October 2016 #FeesMustFall (#FMF2016) protests caused disruption to the academic curriculum of most SA universities, including the University of the Free State (UFS). [10] Student protests regarding high education fees started at Fort Hare University and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology as long ago as 1994. However, owing to their small scale, these protests did not make headline news. [11] In October 2015, student protests started at the University of the Witwatersrand, spreading to the University of Cape Town and Rhodes University, and subsequently to most universities in SA. After government intervention, the protests stopped for a while. [12] However, in mid-August 2016, the Minister of Higher Education announced a maximum fee increase of 8% for universities. Within days, students at most universities participated in the #FMF2016 campaign. [13] #FMF2016 resulted in violent protests and the eventual closure of most SA universities towards the end of 2016. [14] University strikes are common at Canadian universities. [15-18] A study at York University in Toronto emphasised the negative effects that student protests had on the students in general. [15] The study used self-administered questionnaires to collect data from students regarding academic performance and future plans, anxiety levels, available internet information and social behaviour during the strike. In conclusion, studies suggested that more research is needed on students' reactions to similar university crises and that universities should commit to maintaining informative websites to keep students informed. [15,16] These studies all reported on student perceptions, and none of the claims was verified. In SA, labour protests are common and much information is available on the effect of protests on the economy. However, no studies could be found on the effect of university strikes on students. [19,20] If more information is available, better planning and support can be offered to all affected parties during protests. Objectives To determine the perceptions and measured effect of the ...

Evidence of distinct profiles of ICD-11 post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD in a South African sample

“…That is, our PTSD and CPTSD prevalence rates are high, despite the fact that our sample is drawn from an LMIC context with individuals drawing predominantly low-and middle-level earnings. However, this study was conducted during a time of significant and ongoing political unrest at our university campus, which included violence and civil disobedience (Brits et al, 2019;Konik & Konik, 2018).…”

“…The data for this cross-sectional study were collected at a university institution in South Africa during a time of substantial civil unrest, violence, and student protest (Brits et al, 2019;Konik & Konik, 2018). Data were collected via online survey from undergraduate students, recruited using a research participation programme.…”