Pre-clinical Stress Management Workshops Increase Medical Students’ Knowledge and Self-awareness of Coping with Stress

• DOI: 10.1007/s40670-019-00881-4
• Publication Date: 2019-12-09T21:02:36Z
• Authors: Beryl Manning-Geist; Fremonta Meyer; Justin Chen; Andrea Pelletier; Katherine Kosman; Xiaodong Chen; Natasha R. Johnson
• Keywords: Stress Management; Perceived Stress Scale

To investigate the effects of a stress management workshop on medical students' knowledge of stress and potential coping strategies.A panel discussion with small group breakouts on stress in clinical medicine, learning challenges, competition with colleagues, handling stressful events, and recognizing burnout symptoms was conducted with medical students entering clerkships. A longitudinal survey design was utilized to measure pre-, post-, and long-term (3-month) changes in knowledge (impact of stress on personal health, learning, and patient care), confidence, perceived skills, and attitude (towards utilizing adaptive coping strategies) among participating students (N = 135). Paired t test and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the differences between survey responses on a 5-point Likert scale.Survey response rates were pre-90.4%, post-77%, and long-term post-71.1%. Compared to pre-workshop, students reported significant improvement in all four domains immediately post-workshop: knowledge (4.4 vs. 4.7, p < 0.05), confidence (3.6 vs. 3.9, p < 0.05), perceived skills (3.3 vs. 3.7, p < 0.05), and attitude (2.6 vs. 2.8, p < 0.05). Compared to immediate post-workshop, students' scores slightly decreased at 3 months but were overall significantly higher than the pre-workshop scores.A stress management workshop can improve medical students' knowledge of the impact of stress as well as the use of adaptive stress coping strategies.