Grant Barber, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Robert Hayes, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Brianna Castro, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Roohi Maknojia, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Paul Zarutskie, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Owen Kelly, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Patrick Davis, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Karen Nelson, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Purpose
Medical school is notorious for its rigor and high-stress environment. This emphasizes the importance of wellness, the development and implementation of practices to improve one’s mental, physical, and overall health, especially in higher education. This study looked for notable trends in medical students' academic and recreational habits to evaluate wellness's role in medical education.
Methods
Through anonymous survey data, we examined background and lifestyle information from 49 osteopathic medical students at SHSU-COM as well as their scores from validated scales including the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Short Form 8 (SF8), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).
Results
Stress perception was found to be at a moderate level as a baseline. Burnout inventory indicated students are experiencing exhaustion weekly, depersonalization monthly, and accomplishment more than weekly. Spearman rank correlations were run to assess relationships between PSS, SF8, BMI, and prioritization of personal wellness. We found significant correlations between higher stress and worse mental health (p<0.0001), higher stress and less wellness prioritization (p=0.0005), more frequent exhaustion and less wellness prioritization (p=0.0006), and more frequent exhaustion and lower vitality (p=0.0278).
Conclusions
These findings support the long-standing idea of medical students experiencing higher than normal levels of stress and feelings of burnout as well as difficulties coping with these negative factors. Evaluation of coping methods in the form of therapy and counseling services, diet, tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs raises some concerns about how students are managing the stress and burnout they are experiencing. These worries are due to limited indications of counseling usage and greater indications of substance usage. This encourages a need for more studies to investigate the specific etiologies that create these stressors and the implementation and effectiveness of strategies that could mitigate stress and burnout healthily among medical students.