Recognition of Stressors in Postgraduate Students of a Teaching University in Pakistan

Objective: To recognize postgraduate stressors and their intensity among doctors doing post-graduation in the fields of academic and clinical medicine, using the Postgraduate Stressor Questionnaire (PSQ). Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted where the target population was postgraduate students. The PSQ was administered, a twenty-eight item questionnaire to identify and measure intensities of stressors. Questionnaires were administered to ninety post-graduate students, forty-five from each field. Data was entered on SPSS version 20. After descriptive analysis and checking the data for normality independent sample t-test and ANOVA were applied for numerical data, and chi square was applied for categorical data. P-value less than 0.05 were taken as significant level. Results: The mean age of the students was 30.97 (SD=6.52) years. Majority of the students were females. It was seen that academic related stressors were greatest among the two fields of medicine. Higher levels of stress were seen in students who were training in clinical medicine (mean=13.30, SD=4.84) than academic medicine (mean=12.27, SD=5.47). Conclusion: Postgraduate medical training is a highly stressful environment to students. Academic related stressors were found to have its greatest impact in both the fields of medicine; this stress arises from scholastic, academic or educational events. Greatest amounts of stress were seen in students enrolled in clinical medicine.