Wang Qinghua, Du Tianjiao
English Department, School of Fundamental Sciences, China Medical University, No. 77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China.
Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, China Medical University, No. 77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China.
BMC Med Educ. 2020 Dec 11;20(1):505. doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02438-1.
Extant literature reveals that medical students suffer from various mental health problems in the process of learning medicine. However, there are few studies evaluating the implementation of a mental health education course in medical curriculum. The current study aimed to test the effectiveness of an 8-week intensive mental health education course, the College Student Mental Health Education Course (CSMHEC), and to gain further insights on how the course could be improved from students' feedback.
This is a quasi-experimental study with both quantitative and qualitative analyses. We recruited 374 first year medical students as our subjects with 188 (age = 17.97 ± 0.65 years, 37.2% male) for the experiment group and 186 (age = 18.02 ± 0.63 years, 40.3% male) for the control group. For quantitative analysis, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), Chinese College Student Academic Burnout Inventory (CCSABI) and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) were used and a 5-point Likert scale was used to indicate students' overall satisfaction with CSMHEC. For qualitative analysis, a thematic analysis method was adopted to gain insights from the feedback of medical students.
Medical students in the experiment group saw a significant decline in psychological distress (p < 0.001, d = 0.31) and academic burnout (p < 0.001, d = 1.46), while they experienced a significant increase in life satisfaction levels after the intervention (p < 0.001, d = 0.48). Compared with students in the control group, students in the experiment group had statistically significant lower levels of psychological distress (p < 0.05, d = 0.23) and academic burnout (p < 0.001, d = 0.70), but statistically significant higher levels of life satisfaction in the post-test (p < 0.01, d = 0.31). Most students in the experiment group were satisfied with CSMHEC and themes extracted in the thematic analysis shed light on how the course could be improved.
Implementing a mental health education course like CSMHEC in medical curriculum can be effective in helping medical students improve psychological health. More research needs to be conducted on further refinement and better design of such a course to implement in medical education.
现有文献表明，医学生在医学学习过程中会遭遇各种心理健康问题。然而，评估医学课程中心理健康教育课程实施情况的研究较少。本研究旨在测试为期8周的强化心理健康教育课程——大学生心理健康教育课程（CSMHEC）的有效性，并从学生反馈中进一步了解如何改进该课程。
这是一项兼具定量和定性分析的准实验研究。我们招募了374名一年级医学生作为研究对象，其中188名（年龄 = 17.97 ± 0.65岁，男性占37.2%）为实验组，186名（年龄 = 18.02 ± 0.63岁，男性占40.3%）为对照组。定量分析采用抑郁焦虑压力量表-21（DASS-21）、中国大学生学习倦怠量表（CCSABI）和生活满意度量表（SWLS），并使用5点李克特量表来表明学生对CSMHEC的总体满意度。定性分析采用主题分析法，从医学生的反馈中获取见解。
实验组医学生的心理困扰（p < 0.001，d = 0.31）和学习倦怠（p < 0.001，d = 1.46）显著下降，而干预后他们的生活满意度水平显著提高（p < 0.001，d = 0.48）。与对照组学生相比，实验组学生在心理困扰（p < 0.05，d = 0.23）和学习倦怠（p < 0.001，d = 0.70）方面的水平在统计学上显著更低，但在测试后生活满意度水平在统计学上显著更高（p < 0.01，d = 0.31）。实验组的大多数学生对CSMHEC感到满意，主题分析中提取的主题为改进该课程提供了思路。
在医学课程中实施像CSMHEC这样的心理健康教育课程有助于医学生改善心理健康。需要进一步开展研究，对这类课程进行进一步完善和优化设计，以便在医学教育中实施。
