Stress, anxiety, and depression in clinical practice of undergraduates and awareness of its effective management - A survey

To assess the ability of the participants to manage the conditions such as stress, anxiety, and depression during the clinical practice of undergraduate education. Stress and anxiety are two common feelings people would encounter when they are in tensed conditions. Some level of stress may be associated with students in clinical practice because of various reasons. Some of them could manage it by relaxing or meditation, however, these would not work for some people, thus taking drugs that could relieve stress or anxiety is seen as a great solution for this condition. Thus, this survey was done to determine the different condition of stress and how the participants overcome these situations. A survey questionnaire with 13 pre-tested questions was used to assess the main cause of stress and its awareness among dental students at a private dental college. 110 dental students filled the questionnaires which are conducted through online (survey planet). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Most of the dental students (55%) feel stressed before handling patients and the level of stress management for third and final years altogether was moderate (59%). The main cause of stress was quota (71%) followed by others (22%) and patient behavior (7%) and the students choose various methods including time management (66%), improve communication (87%), and nonpharmacological measures such as laughing club (50%), exercise (37%), meditation (8%), and yoga (5%) to overcome stress or anxiety. All of the students chose various methods in overcoming stress or anxiety condition and none of them administered any anti-anxiolytic drugs.