Coping Mechanisms to Stress During Studies after The First Semester of 1st Year Medical Students

The medical field has been known for its importance in society and the stresses associated with it. The Doctor of Medicine program is a post-graduate course that consists of 3 years of classroom education and 1 year of clinical clerkship before graduation. Medical students are known for the high levels of stress they are exposed to (Kulsoom and Afsar, 2015). Stress in medical students is common and process-oriented. It is a normal part of medical education and can be a motivator for certain individuals but not all students find stress constructive (Fares et. Al, 2016). Coping is when an individual responds towards stressors. Failure to cope with stress effectively causes deterioration of academic performance and increases the likelihood of psychological distress.

Coping strategies prevent unwanted consequences of the stressful situation (Salam et Al, 2013). Study habits are utilized by students at all levels of education. Information on learning styles can benefit students in formulating the appropriate learning(Kharb et al, 2013). In general, this study sought to determine the Coping Mechanisms to Stress during Studies after the First Semester of 1st-year Medical Students - Local and international of Jonelta Foundation School of Medicine, Las Piñas Campus andBiñan Campus. The specific objectives are: 1) To determine the different study habits of the medical students, local and international first year of JFSM 2) To determine and measure the stress level of the medical students, local and international first year of JFSM3)To determine how the medical students, local and international first year of JFSM, cope up with the problems(stress) that they are dealing with during studies of Medicine.

Stress For many students, stress arouses feelings of fear, incompetence, uselessness, anger, and guilt, and can be associated with both psychological and physical morbidities. The cause of stress to medical students was greater perceived by academic factors. However,other like inability to cope, helplessness, increased psychological pressure,mental tension, excessive workload, curricular factors, personal life events and the learning environment can result in decreased life satisfaction which in turn leads to unprofessional conduct, increased risk of suicidal ideation and serious thoughts of dropping out (Fares et.al, 2016). VARK model The VARK Questionnaire may be used as an objective standard to know one’s study habits. The VARK model groups learning styles into four styles based on their sensory modalities namely Visual (V), Aural(A), Reading (R) and Kinesthetic (K). It is a simple technique that consists of16 items that promotes reflection on sensory modality characterized by its brevity, simplicity, and ability to encourage students to describe their behavior in a manner where they are able to identify with and accept. The test was developed to provide students with an intimate involvement in a process that produces a description of their own sensory modality preferences, to allow them to use it in subsequent learning. A close match between the anecdotal evidence and the questionnaire and help sheet data has led to confidence in the ability of the questionnaire to provide valid insights into the ways students handle information. The students' responses have encouraged belief in the efficacy of the technique in promoting active reflection by students upon their learning activities. (Fleming and Mills, 1992)The VARK model is used in other studies because it addresses a part of the learning styles that was open to self-modification, it is accompanied by study strategies for each style, and it was the most popular model due to its simplicity and reliability (Kharb et al,2013).

The questionnaire was also deemed objectively suitable and reliable as an instrument for measuring a learner’s preferences when tested with Rasch analysis (Fitkov-Norris and Yeghiazarian, 2015). StudentsStress Inventory TheStudents Stress Inventory (SSI) was developed to measure the stress level of university students. It was based on 2 theories: The General Adaptation Syndrome and The environmental stress Theory. SSIcontained of 40 items and measured 4 subscales namely: Physical (10 items), Interpersonal Relationship (10 items), Academic (10 items) and Environmental Factor (10 items).

The scoring was in the form of an Ordinal Scale (Never, Somewhat Frequent, Frequent, Always). There was also the interpretation of the scores having severe stress, moderate stress, and mild stress. The validity of the SSI, the authenticity method was carried out as well as the validity of 4 subscales were accepted by experts – counselors and teachers. Thus, the SSI content validity is high. The reliability of the SSI had been found to be also high in 2 subscales: academic and environmental. Whereas, the remaining 2 subscales: physical and interpersonal relationship have moderate reliability. By the finding conducted among the Malaysian youth, it showed that SSI had a high score of reliability and validity, thus it can be used in Malaysia context to measure the level of stress among university students. SSI would be beneficial in giving information to educators, counselors, psychologists, and researchers who are striving in enhancing students’ psychological wellness (Arep et.al.,2015). COPEInventory Coping mechanisms may be objectively grouped using the COPE inventory.

THE COPE (Coping Orientations toProblems) inventory is a multidimensional coping inventory to assess the different ways in which people respond to stress. Five scales (of four items each) measure different aspects of problem-focused coping (active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, seeking instrumental social support); the five scales measure aspects of what might be viewed as emotion-focused coping (seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial, turning to religion); and three scales measure coping responses that arguably are less useful (focus on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement) (Carver et al. 1989).

The COPE inventory was found to be reliable in finding the most popular strategies in of coping with stress in people suffering from depression as compared with healthy subjects. (Orzechowska et al, 2013.) It was also used to determine the coping strategies of international medical students (Mohammed, 2016).