Stress and psychological health of medical students in a Nigerian university.

OBJECTIVE Physician job satisfaction is one indicator of the overall health of our health care delivery system. Excellent but dissatisfied physicians could decide to leave the practice of medicine or highly talented students could opt for different careers if the perception that medicine is not a fulfilling career exists. This study aims to investigate the level of course satisfaction, its relationship to psychological disorder and presence/absence of stress among medical students. Physician job satisfaction is one indicator of the overall health of our health care delivery system. Excellent but dissatisfied physicians could decide to leave the practice of medicine or highly talented students could opt for different careers if the perception that medicine is not a fulfilling career exists. This study aims to investigate the level of course satisfaction, its relationship to psychological disorder and presence/absence of stress among medical students. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted among 410 medical students of the University of Benin, Nigeria. The respondents completed a self-administered questionnaire and a standard instrument The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ 28). RESULTS The response rate was 93.9%. Two hundred and forty four (63.4%) of respondents were satisfied with their course, 331 (86.0%) of them felt medicine was stressful. There was also a statistical significant difference in the level of stress among the various levels of medical students. One hundred and twenty three (31.9%) medical students indicated that they would not study medicine again if given a second chance. One hundred and twelve (29.1%) medical students had psychological disorder. More dissatisfied students had psychological disorder than satisfied students and this difference was found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSION The level of perceived stress among medical students was found to be high and a significant number of students had psychological morbidity. There is a need to identify and correct the causes of dissatisfaction among these groups of students in order to improve on the psychological state of the students. Stress management training is also required as majority of the medical students found the course stressful.