Medical Student Well-Being

Welcome to the medical student well-being page of AMSA! The goal of this resource is to provide students with various coping mechanisms for the prevention and management of stress-related problems. Additionally, you will find information for learning ways to educate, motivate, and facilitate positive change at your medical school with regards to student wellness. Changing unhealthy trends in medical education may not be easy, but we, as well as our patients, deserve it.

Background
Medical school is an exciting and challenging time. Along with these challenges come new sources of anxiety and stress. While learning to help patients care for themselves, it may seem as though we neglect our own health and well-being in the name of success.

If you are experiencing stress and anxiety related to medical school, you are not alone. Common themes of stress and anxiety across all four years of medical school include adherence to tough schedules, exam taking, sleep deprivation, and attempting to balance a healthy lifestyle while trying to meet goals. First year students often struggle with the increased work demand and adjustment to a new school. Second year students notoriously develop varying forms of hypochondriasis while studying many diseases for the first time, as well experience stress from the upcoming USMLE/COMLEX Step 1 examinations. Third year students adjusting to clinical rotations may deal with real issues of life and death for the first time, as well as the stress that comes along with deciding on a specialty. Fourth year students, while focusing on residency applications and interviews, will soon face the transition from medical school to internship

Moreover, literature shows that medical students are at increased risk for a host of other ills, including relationship trouble, poor diet, depression, and even an increased risk of suicide ¹. In addition, it has been shown that our health practices affect not only our own health, but also the way we, as doctors, advise our patients about important lifestyle issues such as diet and exercise ².

In other words, wellness in medical school is a commonly compromised. With this in mind, remember: although stress is a necessary part of life, it does not have to prohibit well-being.

LISTSERVE

RESOURCES: WAYS TO COPE

• Basics of Relaxation/Getting Started
• CAM Overview
• Nutrition
• Reading for Fun
• Yoga

PROJECT RESOURCES

• FLIP! Fitness, Lifestyle, Initiative Project in a Box
  
  
• Medical School Well-Being: Annotated Bibliography (2003) (PDF 174KB)
  
  
• Medical School Wellness Resource Table
  School-by-school breakdown of available wellness resources
  
  
• Program Guide for Medical Student Well Being: "Let's Get Interactive!" (PDF 116KB)
  This easy to run well-being program is fun and interactive. Try it at your chapter!
  
  
• Promoting Healthy Behaviors: Linking Student Health to Prevention: PowerPoint Presentation (315 KB)

PUBLICATIONS AND REFERENCE SOURCES

Not only is the primary literature informative, it also provides a sound scientific basis for the importance of well-being that can be useful when trying to convince skeptical school administrators to commit scarce resources to the issue.

Please review a few citations from the primary literature that reflect research on the topic of medical student well-being. Note: while there is a notable body of historical research, this bibliography focuses on more recent work. As with any bibliography, it's not entirely exhaustive, so if you find other useful citations, please contact us. The abstracts for the citations are available from PubMed and the full text should be available from your school's library.

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REFERENCES

1. Wolf TM. Stress, coping and health: enhancing well-being during medical school. Med Educ. 1994 Jan;28(1):8-17; discussion 55-7.
2. Sherman SE, Hershman WY. Exercise counseling: how do general internists do? J Gen Intern Med. 1993 May;8(5):243-8.