Marsch Stephan, Yanagida Takuya, Steinberg Evelyn
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vice-Rectorate for Study Affairs and Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, 1210.
J Vet Med Educ. 2025 Feb;52(1):139-151. doi: 10.3138/jvme-2023-0127. Epub 2024 Feb 26.
Various stressors contribute to veterinary students' stress levels. According to the medical education literature, students' stress seems to increase during clinical training, but research investigating this in veterinary students is scarce. According to transactional stress theory, individual students may not perceive every stressor as equally stressful. The present research therefore aimed to investigate how stressful veterinary students perceive stressors of clinical training, identify subgroups based on their perceptions of these stressors, and determine whether the subgroups differ regarding their total clinical training-related stress and academic achievement. The sample consisted of 197 veterinary students completing their clinical rotation course. The Rotation Stress Questionnaire for Veterinary Students (RSQV) was employed to assess rotation-specific stressors and stress. Course grades served as indicators of academic achievement. Veterinary students reported moderate overall clinical training-related stress, and heavy workload was the main source of stress. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified four subgroups of students, namely: the Generally Stressed Group, Responsibilities Uncertainty Group, Overtasked Group, and Unstressed Group, with significant differences in total stress ( < .001). The groups also differed significantly in academic achievement ( = .015), with post-hoc analysis indicating significant mean differences between the highest- and lowest-stress groups ( = .014). In conclusion, veterinary students' stress during clinical training appears to be a significant factor, particularly concerning workload. However, there are interindividual differences in total stress and achievement which should be considered.
各种压力源会影响兽医专业学生的压力水平。根据医学教育文献，学生的压力在临床培训期间似乎会增加，但针对兽医专业学生的此类研究却很少。根据交互作用应激理论，每个学生可能并不会将所有压力源都视为同等有压力。因此，本研究旨在调查兽医专业学生如何看待临床培训的压力源，根据他们对这些压力源的看法确定亚组，并确定这些亚组在与临床培训相关的总压力和学业成绩方面是否存在差异。样本包括197名正在完成临床轮转课程的兽医专业学生。使用《兽医学生轮转压力问卷》（RSQV）来评估特定轮转的压力源和压力。课程成绩作为学业成绩的指标。兽医专业学生报告称，与临床培训相关的总体压力适中，而繁重的工作量是主要压力来源。层次聚类分析确定了四个学生亚组，即：一般压力组、职责不确定性组、任务过重组和无压力组，总压力存在显著差异（<.001）。这些组在学业成绩上也存在显著差异（=.015），事后分析表明压力最高和最低的组之间存在显著的平均差异（=.014）。总之，兽医专业学生在临床培训期间的压力似乎是一个重要因素，尤其是在工作量方面。然而，在总压力和成绩方面存在个体差异，应予以考虑。
