<p>Association of COVID-19 Pandemic with undergraduate Medical Students’ Perceived Stress and Coping</p>

Abstract

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic poses a major challenge for medical students’ learning and has become a potential stressor, with a profound influence on their psychological well-being. We aimed to determine the effect of the current pandemic on undergraduate medical students’ learning. We also explored the association of their stress level with coping strategies, educational, and psychological variables. Materials and Methods This is a cross-sectional design study, and participants were the 1st to 5th year medical students. A self-administered questionnaire (18 items) and a well-known Kessler 10 Psychological Distress questionnaire (10 items) were used to collect the data related to perceived stress with an association of educational, psychological, and coping variables. Results The prevalence of overall stress was significantly higher ( χ 2 = 16.3; P =0.000) in female medical students, ie, (40%) as compared to the male students (16.6%), and was highest (48.8%) during the 3rd medical year. It was also noted that the most effective strategy, embraced by students to cope with the severe stress, was “indulging in religious activities” (OR= 1.08; P =0.81). Furthermore, 22.3% of students had perceived severe stress as they did not prefer online learning. Similarly, those students who have not believed or refused the online learning or disagree in “there is pleasure in the study due to COVID” they have significantly higher stress ( χ 2 =39.7; P =0.000) 21.5% mild, 17.8% of moderate, and 21.2% severe. Conclusion We found that the COVID-19 pandemic has induced stress and changes in medical students’ educational attitudes and strategies. The results exhibited that the predominance of stress is higher in females than males, and also more stress was perceived by the students during their transitional year, ie, 3rd medical year (from pre-clinical to clinical) and also the respondents who regularly did religious meditation were at lower levels of stress. COVID-19’s influence on medical education and students’ well-being will be felt at an extended level, which necessitates an appropriate plan for preparedness.

<p>Association of COVID-19 Pandemic with Undergraduate Medical Students’ Perceived Stress and Coping [Response to Letter]</p>

“…This is in response to the letter by Jie and Muhammad. We appreciate the interest in our article particularizing the Association of COVID-19 Pandemic with undergraduate Medical Students’ Perceived Stress and Coping, 1 and your comments. Our primary goal was to delineate an approach used by the medical students in terms of their coping strategies adopted to tackle the stress ascending from the current pandemic situation.…”

“…In our college, the male-female ratio contrasts; 2 additionally, our investigation essentially required volunteer participation. 1 which leads us to a natural but unequal number of participants (ie male and female). Moreover, as a well-recognised practice in contemporary research, our results were presented as the percentage of partcipants, not their numbers.…”

Perceived Stress Among Chinese Medical Students Engaging in Online Learning in Light of COVID-19

“…54,55 In terms of individual backgrounds, female students perceived higher stress than males, which agrees with the findings from other studies. 24,56 Females are more sensitive to perceiving academic and interpersonal demands and more willing to express their feelings, thus, a higher level of PS was reported. Also, females in medicine are more likely to experience different expectations, pressures, obstacles, and harassment in the process of developing the capacity to gain scientific excellence and gender equality-related management positions.…”

“… 23 Medical students with a higher level of severe stress were reported to prefer face-to-face classes rather than the current online learning and have trouble with time management. 24 Learning environmental barriers to online education, such as the absence of practice and inadequate online learning material, contribute to students’ stressed emotions. 25 It is worth noting that both developed and developing countries faced an enormous challenge, due to the unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19 and conversion from lectures or tutorials to online learning.…”

Faculty development program assists the new faculty in constructing high-quality short answer questions; a quasi-experimental study

“…Such a situation helped the examination committee determine that the faculty while preparing the questions are not truly adhered to the recommended and guided uniform best practices. This might pose increased exam related stress to the medical students, and reducing it might help students learn fast [ 17 , 18 ]. This prompted for organizing a FDP aiming for high quality SAQs.…”