Publication:

A study on prevalence of stress among first year medical students in Trichy SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Trichy

Background The stress is an inevitable part of education for medical students at time of their life when they are also involved in issues related to life style and carriers. It is reported that stress during medical education can affect the patient care negatively. The objective of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of stress among first year medical students in Trichy SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Trichy.

Methods A descriptive cross sectional study using predesigned, semi structured questionnaire for 150 first year medical students of Trichy SRM Medical College for a period of 2 months (October to November 2018).

Results Among 150 study participants 49% (73) were under stress, 49.3% of them are belong to 18 years. Majority of the study participants are females (57.3%) in which females are getting more stress (28.6%) than males (20.1%); among them 33.3% of them with suicidal tendency and 80.7% of them are academically stressed.

Conclusions The greater proportion of students was found to be stressed with academic problems being major cause for stress when compared with non-academic problems. Stress management workshops soft skills development techniques at the entry of medical carrier would be helpful to reduce stress.