Descriptive Study of the Stress Level and Stressors among medical cluster Students during Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Stress is a normal and necessary part of life. It is the fight-or-flight response to challenges in the world. This natural reaction has specific physical effects on the body to better handle these challenges. Among university students, stress is ubiquitous. They face stress throughout their education journey that may affect their academic achievement with other effects such as mental disturbance, suicidal thoughts and more. This research studies the stressors and measures the stress levels among medical students in a private Malaysian university. The data were collected through an online questionnaire based on the Medical Students Stressors Questionnaire (MSSQ) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The results of MSSQ show that verbal or physical abuse by other students, parental wish to study medicine and not enough medical skill practice are those factors that cause no stress to the respondents. In contrast, the factors that cause mild stress are self-expectation (40%), conflict with personnel (20%), lack of guidance from the teacher (34.3%), feeling incompetence (30%), lack of time for family and friends (30%), learning content full of competition (35.7%) and lack of teaching skills from teachers (27.1%). Mild stressors include examinations (32.9%), talking to patients about problems (47.1%), conflict with other students (28.7%), quota system in examinations (32.9%), not enough study material (25.7%), participation in class discussion (24.3%), falling behind in reading schedule (31.4%), participation in class presentation (35.7%) and uncertainty of what is expected of themselves (32.9%). The major stressor is having a heavy workload (32.9%). According to GHQ, the mild stressors include the inability to overcome difficulty (28.6%), inability to enjoy regular day activity (30%), facing up to problems (30%), feeling unhappy or depressed (30%) and losing confidence (28.6%). Mild stressors include the inability to concentrate on the study (37.1%), loss of sleep (31.4%), inability to feel useful (38.6%), the inability of making the decision (35.7%), being under strain (28.6%) and being reasonably unhappy (34.3%).