Stressors and stress management strategies among young doctors amidst COVID-19 pandemic-Cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Introduction and Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge economic burden and impacted physical and mental health of the people. The young medical graduates are facing a lot of disappointments with regard to career, higher studies, personal life etc. The current research aims to assess the various stressors and their coping strategies among the young medical graduates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material(s) and Method(s) The cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of General Medicine at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India. Undergraduate medical students of 228 in number of both genders who completed their residency training just before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were enrolled in the study. The data was collected through a preformed questionnaire. Ethics clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Informed consent was obtained. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS software version 18.0. P value < 0.05 was considered statically significant. Result(s) The mean scores obtained in PSS-10 were found to be higher among males than females. Around 79.4% showed moderate stress while 20.6% showed high stress (P=0.001). Males showed more stress compared to females in general as well as academic stressors. Male doctors and female doctors had differing stress coping skills. Conclusion(s) The study highlighted the vulnerable state of mind of the young medical doctors. The best way to overcome stress is by providing adequate resources, training to cope stress and ambient conditions for study and work, social support and relaxation techniques at both individual and organisational levels to help them to achieve a reasonable work-family interface.Copyright © 2023, Indian Association of Biomedical Scientists. All rights reserved.