Stress levels of dental students at the Fiji School of Medicine.

Full Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The Fiji School of Medicine is the primary health care educational institution in Fiji and possesses the only dental school in the Pacific. The oral health programme is a multi-entry/exit programme. The aim of this study was to determine the perceived sources or stress and at risk groups within the undergraduate oral health care programmes. METHODS: A modified version of the Dental Environment Stress questionnaire was used to assess levels of stress for 41 items. RESULTS: A total of 115 undergraduate students participated (response rate = 84%). Of the respondents, 54% were male and 46% were female; 55% were Indo-Fijians, 18% Indigenous-Fijians, 8% Polynesians, 7% Micronesians, whilst Melanesians and others were each 6%. Moderate to severe stressful items were: full loaded day, followed by criticism from clinical supervisors in front of patients, amount of assigned work, fear of failing a course or year, examination and grades, financial resources, fear of employment after graduation and fear of facing parents after failure. Of the questionnaire items, 24% had significant differences across year groups. Overall, third years were most stressed followed by fourth years, fifth years, first years and second years. Indo-Fijians were the most stressed, followed by Indigenous-Fijians, Polynesians, others and Melanesians. Females were significantly more stressed than males for 27% of items. Private fee-paying students were more stressed than sponsored students. CONCLUSION: Overall stress levels were slight to moderate and were higher in senior years, Indo-Fijians, females and private fee-paying students.

Author information

Author/s: Morse, Zac (Z); Dravo, Uraia (U);

Affiliation: Fiji School of Medicine, Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji. zacmorse(-atsign-)hotmail.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: European journal of dental education : official journal of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (Eur J Dent Educ), published in Denmark. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-May; vol 11 (issue 2) : pp 99-103

Dates: Created 2007/04/20; Completed 2007/06/12;

PMID: 17445006, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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