Covid-19 pandemic: How stressed the students and faculty are?

Abstract

Objective: To assess the perceived stress levels amongst faculty and students of medicine, dentistry and allied health sciences during COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Method: This multi-institutional descriptive study was conducted from April to June 2020. All the students and faculty from three institutes namely University College of Medicine, University College of Dentistry and the Institute of Allied Health Sciences were invited to participate. Data was collected using a pre-validated Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated using SPSS v.21. Results: 1199 responses were obtained. Students from the University College of Medicine reported higher scores on the Perceived Stress Scale (23.02+11.85) than those from the University College of Dentistry (21.87+10.86) and the Institute of Allied Health Sciences (21.95+11.32). The students and the faculty experienced stress ‘sometimes to fairly often’ during this pandemic. Females experienced more stress than males and there was no significant difference among students and faculty of various age groups. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the students and the faculty from medicine, dentistry and allied health sciences institutes were moderately stressed. The medical students were more affected than the allied health and dental students. A higher stress level was reported among dental faculty as compared to the other two institutes. Institutions should hence promote resilience and mental well-being and provide for more flexible work schedules.