Perceived Sources of Stress among Final Year Dental Undergraduate Students of Multan Medical and Dental College

Abstract

Introduction: Stress affects everyone at some point in their lives, but dental students are particularly vulnerable as dental education is highly demanding and stressful.Stress is defined as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from difficult or demanding circumstances, impairs work effectiveness and results in low performance. So, it's vital to identify sources so that we can reduce stressors and improve students' performance.
Objective: The objective of this study is to identify the perceived sources of stress for final-year dental students of Multan Medical and Dental College.
Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. We used a validated Modified Dental Environmental Stress (DES) questionnaire to identify the perceived sources of stress among final-year dental undergraduate students. A 4-point Likert scale was used ranging from ‘1 not stressful’, ‘2 slightly stressful’, ‘3 Moderately stressful’ and ‘4 Extremely stressful’. The questionnaire has 34 items, under five different categories (Personal factors, Educational environment, Academic course, Clinical factors and Patient management).
Results: Out of 45 final-year students, 36 participated in this study. According to the results, final-year students found many factors to be stressful but the lack of time for relaxation, toxic friendships, fear of failing a subject, and the amount and difficulty of the syllabus were the most stressful factors identified.
Conclusion: The Dental education is demanding, hence dental students need stress management training. In order to increase student performance and well-being, institutes should provide stress awareness, student counseling mentor-mentee and stress management programs.
Keywords: Stress, Final-year, Dental undergraduates, DES questionnaire