Psychological impact and stress factors among Ha’il medical students post COVID19 pandemic

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic frightfully threatened the whole world, and people in different countries were demanded to be quarantined due to possible contact with the infection. High mortality rate, the spread of COVID19 and the propagation of fake news in social media programs created fear and anxiety among majority of society especially, medical students. One of the most essential changes during the covid-19 was the termination of teaching lectures in physical presence and its replacement by virtual online lectures. Circumstances like these have negative impact on the mental health of medical students. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on medical students’ learning and the effect of distressing situation they experienced, psychological and educational variables specifically during return to physical attendance in college and the impact of these variables of probably affecting factors like age, gender, marital status, transition of preclinical years to clinical years. A Cross-sectional study was completed among medical students at UOH, KSA. The data are collected by distributing an online questionnaire. Statistical analysis has been done with Microsoft Power BI. 14.82% of 5th year female participants were unable to stop worrying for different things while 10.54% of male participant were in the 1st year. Large numbers of students who have increased the number of times they wash their hands are found in med3 and med4 while 27.92% agree and 29.05% strongly agree of whole years of study. 45.29% of students were having mental pressure before online session due to internet connection while 51.55% had decreased motivation since the shift to online learning. Data shows that highest numbers of participants who were having past illness and anxious were in age group 21-23 in both male and female. The majority of students was having fear toward returning in physical presence and preferred not to have on- college education. Hence, it is recommended to encourage students and reduce stress by providing with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) course.