O'Byrne Lorcan, Gavin Blánaid, Adamis Dimitrios, Lim You Xin, McNicholas Fiona
School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, SMMS, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
J Med Ethics. 2021 Mar 3. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2020-107155.
For medical schools, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated examination and curricular restructuring as well as significant changes to clinical attachments. With the available evidence suggesting that medical students' mental health status is already poorer than that of the general population, with academic stress being a chief predictor, such changes are likely to have a significant effect on these students. This online, cross-sectional study aimed to determine the impact of COVID-19 on perceived stress levels of medical students, investigate possible contributing and alleviating factors, and produce recommendations for medical schools to implement during future healthcare emergencies. The majority (54.5%) of respondents reported levels of stress ranging from moderate to extreme. Higher levels of stress were significantly associated with female gender (p=0.039) and international status (p=0.031). A significant association was also noted between reported stress and the transition to online learning (p<0.0001) and online assessment formatting (p<0.0001), concerns for personal health (p<0.0001) and for the health of family members (p<0.0001). Students who reported higher stress levels were less confident in their government's management of the crisis (p=0.041). Additionally, students who reported lower stress agreed highly that their medical school had an appropriate response to the crisis (p<0.0001), had provided sufficient information regarding the crisis (p=0.015), that they trust their school in handling the continuing of their education (p=0.020) and that their school had appropriate plans in place to support the continuing of education (p=0.017).
对于医学院校而言，新冠疫情使得考试和课程结构需要重新调整，临床实习安排也发生了重大变化。现有证据表明，医学生的心理健康状况本就比普通人群更差，学业压力是主要预测因素，因此这些变化可能会对这些学生产生重大影响。这项在线横断面研究旨在确定新冠疫情对医学生感知压力水平的影响，调查可能的促成因素和缓解因素，并为医学院校在未来医疗紧急情况期间的应对提供建议。大多数（54.5%）受访者表示压力水平从中度到极度不等。较高的压力水平与女性性别（p=0.039）和国际学生身份（p=0.031）显著相关。报告的压力与向在线学习的转变（p<0.0001）、在线评估形式（p<0.0001）、对个人健康的担忧（p<0.0001）以及对家庭成员健康的担忧（p<0.0001）之间也存在显著关联。报告压力水平较高的学生对政府应对危机的管理信心较低（p=0.041）。此外，报告压力较低的学生高度认同他们的医学院对危机做出了适当反应（p<0.0001），提供了有关危机的充分信息（p=0.015），他们信任学校处理其继续教育事宜（p=0.020），并且学校有适当的计划来支持继续教育的开展（p=0.017）。
