Date Presented 03/28/20
Increased stress levels can affect undergraduate OT students’ academic performance, quality of life, mental health, and development of therapeutic relationships. In this survey study, academics and time constraints were identified by students as causing the highest levels of perceived stress. It is important for students to learn to identify stressors and how to manage them so that they can employ adequate coping skills and foster effective therapeutic rapport with clients.
Primary Author and Speaker: Laura Poleshuck
Contributing Authors: Samantha Eckhardt, Shelby Peck, Caryn Salce, Sophie Valenti
PURPOSE: Increased stress levels can influence students’ academic performance, quality of life, mental health, and development of therapeutic relationships. The purpose of this study was to determine which items are most frequently identified by undergraduate occupational therapy (OT) students as current causes of stress.
DESIGN: This survey study included students between the ages of 18-25 years, in their 3rd or 4th year of a 5 year Master’s or 6 year clinical doctorate OT program. Researchers contacted the chairpersons of 16 OT programs in the northeast United States through email, explained the purpose of the study, and asked the chairpersons to forward the survey to 3rd and 4th year students in their respective programs. Fifty-three undergraduate students enrolled in 16 OT programs in the northeast United States met the inclusion criteria and completed the online Qualtrics survey.
METHOD: Survey questions included 49 different potential stressors in the areas of academics, time management, health and personal, relationships, and the college environment, which were identified by a thorough literature review of existing surveys of student stress. Students were asked to report the level of stress they had experienced over the past month for each of these items, based on a Likert scale; response options included “severe stress”, “moderate stress”, “mild stress”, or “no stress”. Analysis was completed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics 25); descriptive statistics were run on the variables.
RESULTS: Beginning with the highest ranked stressor, the top 10 included personal grade expectations, course load, taking exams, assignment deadlines, time management, amount of free time, understanding priorities for studying, developing effective study strategies, program grade requirements, and understanding expectations for assignments. The five items that were reported to cause the least amount of stress were feeling safe on campus, religious obligations, cultural values, posting to social media, and sexual orientation, with sexual orientation being the least stressful of the 49 items. Each of the top ten perceived stressors reported by the participants fell within the general categories of academics (such as taking exams) and time management (such as assignment deadlines), with personal grade expectations being the item which was reported to cause the highest level of perceived stress.
CONCLUSION: Academics and time constraints were reported to cause the highest level of perceived stress in undergraduate OT students. It is important for faculty and staff to be aware of this and identify ways to implement stress management education for the wellbeing and success of students. Students also need to recognize when their stress levels are rising and be able to utilize available resources to cope with these stressors. It is important for students to learn to identify stressors and how to manage them so that in both fieldwork and in future practice they can employ adequate coping skills and foster effective therapeutic relationships with clients.
IMPACT STATEMENT: Therapeutic relationships are the cornerstone of OT practice and are critical to excellence in the field. Despite rising levels of stress and anxiety on college campuses, each future clinician must learn to be client-centered and to develop their therapeutic use of self in order to provide clients with high quality, meaningful, and effective care.
References
Haughey, K., Zimmerman, S., & Sanders, M. (2017). Perceived stressors and coping in junior, senior, and graduate occupational therapy students: A qualitative analysis. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71, 1. doi:10.5014/ajot.2017.71S1-PO7035
Lazarus. (1990). Theory-based stress measurement. Psychological Inquiry, 1(1), 3-13. doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0101_1
Nerdrum, P., Rustoen, T., & Helge Ronnestad, M. (2009). Psychological distress among nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy students: A longitudinal and predictive study. Scandanavian Journal of Educational Research, 53(4), 363-378. doi.org/10.1080/00313830903043133
