Depression and stress amongst undergraduate medical students

BMC Medical Education

Benjamin Kligler⁴  Daniel C. Myers³  Felise Milan³  Jacqueline Weingarten¹  William Burton²  Allison B. Ludwig² 

[1] Montefiore Medical Center, 111 E. 210th Street, Rosenthal Pavilion, Room 4, Bronx 10467, NY, USA;Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Ave, Bronx 10461, NY, USA;Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Clinical Skills Center, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx 10461, NY, USA;Beth Israel Medical Center, Continuum Center for Health and Healing, 245 Fifth Avenue, New York 10016, NY, USA

关键词: Curriculum;    Stress;    Burnout;    Depression;    Wellness;   

Others  :  1224473
DOI  :  10.1186/s12909-015-0425-z

 received in 2015-01-27, accepted in 2015-08-19,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

The demands placed on medical trainees pose a challenge to personal wellbeing, leading to burnout and erosion of empathy. However, it is unclear at what point in medical education this decline begins. Although many schools have begun to design and implement wellness programs for their students, the medical education community’s experience in evaluating their impact is limited.

Methods

The authors designed a wellness needs assessment of all medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in order to assess students’ health behaviors, stress and depressive symptoms. The online survey was administered to all medical students from the classes of 2014 and 2015 at the beginning of their first year of medical school and again at the end of their third year. Chi-square and T-tests were run comparing the survey responses of the two classes.

Results

There was a significant increase in perceived stress from an average of 5.51 in the first year to 6.49 in the third year (p = .0001). The number of students at risk for depression, defined as a CES-D score greater than 16, was 94 (28.4 %) in the first year and 131 (39.0 %) in their third year (p = .004).

Conclusions

This study demonstrates a significant increase in the proportion of students at risk for depression in their third year as compared to the first year as well as an increase in perceived stress. In response to these findings, the authors took a multi-disciplinary approach in the development of a comprehensive program to address student wellness, including efforts to address issues specific to the clinical clerkships. This program is unique in that its design, inception and ongoing evaluation have taken the needs of an entire medical school class into account.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Ludwig et al.

【 图 表 】

Fig. 1.

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