Medical Students Well-Being

Dyslexia among undergraduate students in Malaysian universities

2009-11-25T00:57:00.004+08:00

I want to share some of interesting research about Dyslexia among undergraduate students in Malaysian universities that I obtained from an International Conference on Teaching & Learning in Higher Education 2009.

Dyslexia is condition where individual having persistent difficulties in reading, spelling, writing and organizing thoughts on paper resulting in difficulties in reading and understanding examination questions, writing answers, completing examinations in time and completing assignments.

The study was conducted in 10 universities; government and private. A Total of 240 undergraduate students participated in this study (Medical, dental and pharmacy students were excluded from this study). They were screen by Adult Dyslexia Inventory. Researches found that the prevalence of dyslexia among undergraduates was 4.66%. They also found that dyslexia prevalence was higher in the private universities compared to government universities which were 5.23% and 4.22% respectively. Previous study have found that prevalence of dyslexia among undergraduate students range from 4% - 10% and even in certain studies found 15%.

The findings make me wondering whether some of undergraduate medical students having dyslexia? Perhaps similar study should be conducted on medical students to explore this matters. Why this is important? It is because there are different methods of assessment for the students with dyslexia. The special assessment methods was done and implemented by US and UK universities to their dyslexia students.

Perhaps we should appreciate and recognize dyslexia students therefore appropriate assessment methods can be administered to these students.

Getting along with people

2009-09-25T22:27:00.003+08:00

No man is an island

In our daily life we need to interact with others. If we interact positively we can achieve good mental health which will enable us to live life to the fullest.

What will happen if you do not get along with people?

Misunderstandings
Accusations and resentment
Threatening environment and hostility
Deteriorating quality of life

Tips on getting along with people

Be respectful

To gain respect one must respect others.
Always address someone by his/her name.
Speak politely and ask for permission when you need someone’s help.

Be attentive and sincere

Learn to listen when somebody is talking.
Do not interrupt and give unwanted advice.
Try to maintain eye contact.

Be flexible and cooperative

Learn to cooperate and compromise with other people.
Be sensitive to what they need and disire.

Be accepting and forgiving

Learn to accept people’s strengths and weaknesses. It is important to be able to forgive other people’s mistakes, because by doing so, other people will also accept and treat us the same way.

Acknowledge and compliment

Learn to appreciate other people’s contributions by giving appropriate compliments and credits whenever it is called for.The key to a harmonious life is to get along with the people around you.

Source: A Public Health Education Information from the Ministry of Health Malaysia

Stressor Among Medical Students

2009-09-24T23:28:00.007+08:00

Stressor among medical students can be grouped into 6 groups. The 6 groups are:

1) Academic related stressor

e.g. too many subject to be studied, not enough time to do revision, examinations and tests are too frequent, difficulty in understanding content of subject, and heavy workload.

2) Interpersonal and Intrapersonal related stressor

e.g. conflict with friends, teachers, and personnel, physical and verbal abuse from friends, teachers and personnel.

3) Teaching and Learning related stressor

e.g. teachers lack of teaching skills, educational environment was not condusive, and competitive learning environment.

4) Social related stressor

e.g. not enough time with family anf friends, frequent interuptions of work by friends, and long duration on working with computer.

5) Drive and Desire related stressor

e.g. unwilling to study medicine and family force to learn medicine.

6) Group Activity related stressor

e.g. participating in group discussion and presentation.

Those are the stressors perceived by medical students. Hopefully it makes us realise what are our stressor. By knowing our stressors, we can plan strategies and approaches to manage it effectively.

reference:

1. Muhamad SBY et al., (in press). The Development & Validity of Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ), ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry.

What are the things medical students need?

2009-08-03T23:24:00.006+08:00

One question came into my mind, "What are the things medical students need?" in order for them to go through medical training smoothly and successful as well as they are happy and satisfied with what they did during their training. Do they need extra time? do they need extra attention? do they need extra holiday? do they need extra programme? do they need extra motivation? do they need extra money? do they need extra class? do they need a class which teach them how to take care of their wellbeing? do they need seminar on stress-mangament? do they need mentor-mantee system? do they need special counselor to counsel them? do they need personal supervisor for extra support? do they need more patient? do they need extra authority that enable them to do extra procedures? do they need special hostel? and there are many more questions that came to my mind when i think about what medical students need in order for them to get through smoothly.

That were some questions in my mind which i myself not really sure what are the answers. I hope to get some response from medical students if there is any medical student read this article regardless of where they came from.

That's all for now, may be if i got free time and answers for those questions i will discuss more on this topic.

Can We Control What Goes In?

2009-05-15T22:47:00.015+08:00

We are what we are because of what goes into our minds and hearts. (Zig Ziglar)

One of the reasons I displayed it prominently (above statement) is that it's the best statement I ever found about the significance of an education. We are not talking about just formal education, but all education. We truly are what we are because of what goes into our minds and hearts. Almost everyday we were being deluged from all sides with a torrent of words. The pictures those words represent get into our heads and have a strong effect on the way we think and the way we talk. Obviously, we can't control all the messages we are blitzed with, but we have more control than we think. We can do two things to make sure our hearts and minds full of good words:

1. Screen out the thrash: Would we let someone come into our home and dump a big bag of thrash all over our living room? If we wouldn't let someone dump thrash in our living room, they why do we let them dump thrash into our minds and hearts? Simply paying more attention to our input (what comes and goes in), we can easily screen out much of the negative. For example, we can change TV channels and radio stations, we can close offensive reading materials, and we can avoid, at least to some extent, being around people who drag us down with their glum conversation. In other words, we can eliminate a lot of negative input.

2. Start the day with positive input: Words always reveal what is going on inside our minds and hearts. Start our day by putting something good into our minds and hearts e.g. we get up ealier than we needed to, before doing anything, we sit down in the quiet of the morning with a cup of hot coffee and something uplifting to read. It has a positive effect on us for the remainder of the day. It affects not only our thinking but also our talking for the rest of the day. It's one of the best habit we can have, if we want to. We must remember that a man's words will always express what has been stored in his heart.

I believe that if we are practising such habit then we will improve our well being, thus will improve our resiliency. Healthy medical students will produce healthy future medical doctors. Healthy medical doctors will result in better treatment for patients, and eventually it will make healthier society. Think, think and think!

reference

1. Hal Urban (2004). Positive Words, Powerful Results. Fireside Book, Simon & Schuster; New York.

The Power of Words

2009-05-13T21:52:00.009+08:00

A careless word may kindle strife.

A cruel word may wreck a life.

A bitter word may hate instill.

A brutal word may smite and kill.

A gracious word may smooth the way.

A joyous word may light the day.

A timely word may lessen stress.

A loving word may heal and bless.

As medical personals we must remember, words that come out from our mouth have the power to destroy or heal. When words are both true and kind, they can positively influence our care and treatment on our patients. Thus, we have to use positive words when communicating with our patients. The question is when we have to learn it? the answer is we have to learn this important skills during our undergraduate medical training. Hopefully it will help us to maintain our level of professionalism and well being. Positive words may lessen stress, enhance our well being, and may improve patient care. Every word that we speak is a chance to change what is bad into something good.

"WORDS MAKE US HUMAN"

reference

1. Hal Urban (2004). Positive Words, Powerful Results. Fireside Book, Simon & Schuster; New York.

What Determines Focus & Assertiveness?

2009-05-11T22:01:00.008+08:00

Every behavior has a purpose, or an intent, that the behavior is trying to fulfill. People engage in behaviors based on their intent, and do what they do based on what seems to be most important in any given moment. Four general intents have been identified that determine how we will behave in any given situation or circumstance, these four intents are:

1. Get the task done

2. Get the task right

3. Get along with people

4. Get appreciation from peole

Just as we choose what to wear from a variety of clothing styles, so we choose from a variety of behaviors that are situationally dependent. We may have a favourite shirt or pair of pants, an we may also have a behavioral style that we prefer. But rather than having one behavioral style all the time, our behavior changes as our priorities change. We may find it helpful to identify these four intents in ourselves, and recognize their connection to our own behavior in various types of situations. This will make us easier to observe and understand in others.

"AS OUR INTENT CHANGES, SO DOES OUR BEHAVIOR"

reference:

1. Dr Rick Brinkman & Dr Rick Kirschner (1994). Dealing With People You Cant Stand. McGraw-Hill.

Dealing with The 10 Most Unwanted List

2009-05-09T20:06:00.020+08:00

You may agree or disagree with this or that person about who's the difficult person and who is not. 10 specific behavior paterns have been identified that sane people resort to when they feel threatened or thwarted, that represent their struggle with or withdrawal from undesired circumstances. Here are the 10 difficult behaviors that represent normal people at their worst (Understanding their behaviors may help medical students or medical doctors deal with them).

1. The Tank: The Tank is confrotational, pointed, and angry, the ultimate is pushy and agrresive behavior.

2. The Sniper: whether through rude comments, bitting sarcasm, or a well-timed roll of the eyes, making you look foolish is The Sniper's specialty.

3. The Grenade: after a brief period of calm, The Grenade explodes into unfocused ranting and raving about things that have nothing to do with the present circumstances.

4. The Know-It-All: seldom in doubt, The Know-It-All has a low tolerance for correction and contradiction. If something goes wrong, however, The Know-It-All will speak with the same authority about who's to blame-you.

5. The-Think-They-Know-It-All: Think-They-Know-It-Alls can't fool all the people all of the time, but they can fool some of the people enough of the time, and enough of the people all of the time-all for the sake of getting some attention.

6. The Yes Person: in an effort to please people and avoid confrontation, Yes People say "yes" without thinking things through. They react to the latest demands on their time by forgetting prior commitments, and overcommit until they have no time for themselves. Then they become recentful.

7. The Maybe Person: in a moment of decision, the Maybe Person procrastinates in the hope that a better choice will present itself. Sadly, with most decisions, there comes a point when it is too little, too late, and the decision makes itself.

8. The Nothing Person: no verbal feedback, no nonverbal feedback. Nothing. What else could you expect from... The Nothing Person.

9. The No Person: more deadly to morale than a speeding bullet, more powerful than hope, able to defeat big ideas with a single syllable. Disguised as a mild mannered normal person, the No Person fights a never ending battle for futility, hopelessness, and despair.

10. The Whiner: Whiners feel helpless, and overwhelmed by an unfair world. Their standard is perfection, and no one and nothing measures up to it. But misery loves company, so they bring their problems to you. Offering solutions makes you bad company, so their whining escalates.

These are the difficult people who most people cant' stand working with it, talking with, and dealing with. But if we are fed up with laziness, frustrated by bullies, disappointed in human nature, and tired of losing, don't upset or despair. Instead, remember that when dealing with difficult people, we always have a choice. In fact, we have 4 choices:

1. We can stay and do nothing.

2. We can vote with our feet.

3. We can change our attitude about our difficult person.

4. We can change our behavior.

It is up to us how we want to deal with them!

reference:

1. Dr Rick Brinkman & Dr Rick Kirschner (1994). Dealing With People You Cant Stand. McGraw-Hill.

Nurturing the Art of Resiliency

2009-05-02T15:45:00.014+08:00

The most empowering finding in resliliency-psychology research is that we have an inborn predisposition to become resilient and change-proficient. Our resiliency can be nurtured through appropriate methods such as:

remain calm under pressure, bounce back from setbacks, and avoid resiliency fatigue.

improve our problem-solving skills by using 3 different methods; analytical, creative, and practical.

keep a playful sense of humor, optimism, and positive feeling during difficult times.

break free from inner barrier to resiliency by strengthening our inner "selfs" in healthy ways and overcoming the "good child" handicap.

overcome tendencies to feel like a victim, and stay detached from "victim" reactions to others.

appreciate our complex qualities such as selfish-unselfishness, optimitics-pessimism, and cooperative-nonconformity.

develop our unique way of being resilient by being both self-reliant and socially responsible.

discover how our natural desire to learn is what leads to our life getting better and better.

become skillful at having things work well for ourselves and others.

convert misfortune into good fortune.

master the art of resiliency.

Our resiliency strengths come from self-motivated, self-directed learning, self-managed efforts to develop resiliency skills. Some people who hear or read about ways to become more resilient mistakenly think that the power lies in the recommended method. Just as a can opener doesn't open cans by itself, reading about resiliency skills doesn't make a person resilient. Resiliency comes from deciding to learn good skills for bouncing back from setbacks and working to have things turn out well. Our intention to develop resiliency methods that work for ourselves is what determines our success or failure.

reference:

1. Al Siebert (2005). The Resiliency Advantages: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back From Setbacks. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publisher INC.

The Resiliency - It is Hard to do but Worth the Effort

2009-04-24T23:02:00.023+08:00

Resiliency refer to the ability to:

cope well with high levels of ongoing disruptive change
sustain good health and energy when under constant pressure
bounce back easily from setbacks
overcome adversities
change to a new way of working and living when an old way no longer possible
do all this without acting in dysfunctional or harmful ways.

When resilient people have their lives distrupted they handled their feelings in healthy ways. They allow themselves to feel grief, sad, anger, loss and confusion when hurt and distressed, but they don't let it become a permanent feeling state. An unexpected outcome is that they not only heal, they often bounce back stronger than before. This is why resilient people usually handle major difficulties and disaster easier than other. They rebuild their distrupted lives in a new way that works for them, and the struggle to overcome adversity develops new strengths in them.

Resilience is more important than ever in today's world. The volatile and chaotic period we are going through will not end soon. To sustain a good life for yourself and your family, you must be much more resilient than people had to be in the past. People with resiliency skills have a significant advantage over those who feel helpless or react like victims.

Resiliency is an essential skills in every job sector such as professional services; doctors, lawyers and etc, especially during times of turmoil. It is important to understand that when we are hit with life-distrupting events, we will never be the same again. We either cope or we crumble; We become better or bitter; we emerge stronger or weaker. It is up to us how we want to take it either in a positive way or in a negative way. We have to remember that it is not the strongest people will survive, it is not the most intelligence people will survive, but it is the people who are responsive to change will survive.

reference

1. Al Siebert (2005). The Resiliency Advantages: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back From Setbacks. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publisher INC.

Thrive Under Pressure

2009-04-23T21:56:00.028+08:00

How do we respond to extreme stress and pressure? How do we respond to difficult moment? We react to the life's setbacks in many different ways. Some emotionally explode. We become enraged and flail around. We have emotional tantrums in which we may want to hurt someone. A few of us become physically violent.

Some of us do the opposite. We implode. We go numb. We feel so helpless and overwhelmed we can't even try to cope with what has happened.

Some of us potray ourselves as victims. We blame others for ruining our lives. We spiral downward, mired in unhappy thoughts and feelings. "This isn't fair," we complain over and over. "Look at what they've done to me now."

Then, there is another group, the people who get through their distress, orient quickly to the new reality, and cope with immediate challenges. They bounce back and often spiral upward, stronger and better than before. In the workplace, they convert what could be a major career difficulties into finding an even better career achievement and growth.

Highly resilient people are flexible, adapt to a new circumstances quickly, and thrive in constant change. Most importantly, they expect to bounce back and feel confident they will. They have a knack for creating good luck out of circumstance that many others see as bad luck.

In the past, individuals had to learn how to become resilient on their own. Now the new science of resiliency psychology can show us how to become quickly and easily resilient in a way that fits our world. Research into coping, optimism, hardiness, stress-resistance, post-traumatic growth, creativity, emotional intelligence, and the survivor personality has been identified as the main attributes of resiliency. We can learn how to use knowledge gained from the latest psychology research to develop our unique way of being resilient. Resilient people are the people who can thrive under pressure.

reference

1. Al Siebert (2005). The Resiliency Advantages: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back From Setbacks. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publisher INC.

Financial Intelligence

2009-04-17T22:12:00.011+08:00

It was very uncommon for medical schools teach their medical students how to manage their money once they get some from their work as doctors in the future. Do our medical students ready and competence enough to manage their income? Can financial intelligence be taught and help them to be better doctors in the future? Why is so important for medical students to be financially competence? Does it relevance to medical students? Why i'm so concerned about this because I believe that by being financially competence, it promotes well-being of future medical doctors (this is another skill that we medical teachers have to look for). How does it promotes well-being of future doctors? The answer is very straight forward, everyone on the earth need money, thus, by managing your money intelligently you can minimise your money lost and you will maximize profits from your income. In other hand, if you are financially intelligence then you can let your money work for you and they generate extra income to your pocket. While you are treating patients your money generating income to your bank account. Does it sound interesting! I believe if doctors have enough money to support their family and themselves, they will treat patients full-heartedly without worrying about money. However, now it is not like that, it is another way around, perhap that is the reason why doctor are stressed, demotivated and not treating their patients well. May be one of the ways to overcome this problem is to teach our medical students about financial intelligence during their medical training. Hopefully with it we can produce better future doctors, not only they have good clinical skills but they are also know how to manage their money intelligently. Let's think about this together. If it is useful and feasible why don't we try it out and let see what is the students feedback about it.

Outcomes of Emotional Quotient

2009-04-12T07:39:00.012+08:00

Studies concerning EQ have been reported from Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Although they are vary widely in their quality, they include a number of individually well-done and convincing demonstrations of the predictive power of EQ. Accumulating findings suggest EQ may predict important outcomes in several areas as below:

1. Better relations for children. Among children and adolescents, EQ positively correlates with good social relation and negatively correlate with correlates with social deviance, measure both in and out of school as reported by children themselves, their family members and their teachers.

2. Better social relations for adult. Among adults, higher EQ leads to greater self-perception of social competence and less use of destructive interpersonal strategies.

3. High EQ individuals are perceived more positively by others. Others perceive high EQ individuals as more pleasant to be around, more empathic, and more socially adroit than those low in EQ.

4. Better family and intimate relationships. EQ is correlated to some aspects of family and intimate relationships as reported by self and others.

5. Better academic achievement. EQ is correlated with higher academic achievement as reported by teachers, but generally not with higher grades once IQ is taken into account.

6. Better social relation during work. EQ is correlated with more positive performance outcomes and negotiation outcomes in the laboratory, and also with more success at work, according to some preliminary research.

7. Better psychological well being. EQ is correlated with greater life satisfaction and self-esteem and lower rating of depression. It also is correlated with fewer negative physical and behaviour.

EQ, validly measured, is a predictor of significant outcomes across diverse samples in a number of real world domains. It predicts social relations, workplace performance, and mental and physical well-being.

Reference:

1. Mayer J.D. , Roberts R.D. & Barsade S.G. (in press). Emerging Research In Emotional Intelligence, Annual Review of Psychology, 59.

Spiritual Quotient (SQ)

2009-04-09T23:45:00.017+08:00

SQ (based on the brain's third neural system, the synchrounous neural oscillations that unify data across the whole brain) offer us a viable tertiary process for the first time. This process unifies, integrates and has potential to transform material arising from the IQ and EQ. It facilitates a dialogue between reason and emotion, between mind and body. It provides a fulcrum for growth and tranformation for a sustainability tommorow. It provides the self with an active, unifying, meaning-giving centre.

SQ is an internal and inner wisdom, innate ability of the human brain and psyche, drawing its deepest resources from the heart of the universe itself. SQ is the soul's intelligence. It is the intelligence with which we heal ourselves and with which we make ourselves whole. SQ is the intelligence that rest in the deep part of the self that is connected to wisdom from beyond the IQ, or concious mind, it is the intelligence with which we are not only recognize existing values, but with which we creatively discover new values. SQ has 'wired' us to become people we are and gives us potential for further 'rewiring' - for growth and transformation, for further evolution of our human potential. SQ is our compass 'at the edge'. 'The edge' is the border between order and chaos, between knowing comfortably what we are about and being totally lost. It is the place where we can be at our most creative. SQ, our deep, intuitive sense of meaning and value, is our guide 'at the edge'. SQ is our conscience, it take us to understanding of who we are and what things mean to us, and how these give others and their meaning a place in our own world.

Realizing the important of SQ, future medical doctors should take some of their time to learn how to nurture and develop their SQ properly. With appropriate level of SQ they will be better and good doctors. If we fail to develop our SQ, actually we plan to ruin ourselves. Think about it and let us transforming ourselves into a sustainable tommorow.

Reference

1. Danah Zohar & Ian Marshall (2000). SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence, Bloombury, New York.

What is Emotional Quotient (EQ)?

2009-03-26T21:40:00.013+08:00

Emotional Quotient is defined as the ability to perceive, express, understand and regulate emotion. Emotionally intelligence people are self-aware. They manage their emotion without being hijacked by overwhelming stress, depression, anxiety, or anger. They can delay enjoyment in pursuit of long-range rewards, rather than being overtaking by immediate impulses. Their empathy enables them to read others’ emotions. They handle others’ emotion skillfully, knowing what to say to a grieving friend, how to courage colleagues, and how to manage conflicts well. Simply said, they are emotionally smart, and thus they often succeed in careers, marriages, and parenting where other academically smarter people fail. Golemen argued that Intelligence Quotient (IQ) only contributes about 20% to success in life, and other forces contribute to the rest. Emotional Intelligence is not necessarily related to academic ability. In extreme cases, brain damage may diminish emotional intelligence while leaving academic intelligence intact. There are considerable evidences showed that emotional intelligence is a determinant of success in a variety of occupational setting, with most of the studies focusing on leaders and those in sales occupations.

Realizing the important of EQ, future medical doctors should take some of their time to learn how to nurture and develop their EQ properly. With appropriate level of EQ they will be better and good doctors. If we fail to develop our EQ, actually we plan to ruin ourselves. Think about it and let us transforming ourselves into a sustainable tommorow.

Unexpected Findings!

2009-03-25T23:46:00.010+08:00

In the middle of Jan 09, I did a survey on prevalence of stress among secondary school students (around 100 students) in an ordinary secondary school. The survey showed that the prevalence of stress among the students was around 27%. The prevalence is higher compared to the prevalence of normal population (less than 10%). It is nearly similar to the prevalence of stress among medical students which is around 30%. It was unexpected finding because i thought that the prevelance will be much lower, may be less than 15%. This simple survey suggested that even at the secondary school level our students already under high pressure. Let us think for a while about this, what will happen to them if they enter medical school? To verify this finding, we need to conduct a proper survey. However, some lessons to be learnt from this simple survey are teachers should be aware of this problem and early detection of stressed students should be done by the school teachers. Early detection and intervention will reduce negative and unwanted impacts of stress on the students.

PREVENTION is better than CURE

Stress, Stressors and Coping Strategies Relationships

2008-10-30T21:38:00.035+08:00

Stress is defined as emotional changes or disturbances as a result of continual interactions between the person and the environment. Stimulants that cause stress to the person are called as stressors. The ways of the personal responses toward the stressors are known as coping strategies.

In order to understand the relationships between the stress level, stressors and coping strategies, we must understand 3 components that influence the relationships. The 3 components are affective, cognitive and psychomotor component.

Affective component involve in receiving and perceiving stimulants that interact with the person. Emotional Quotient (EQ), Spiritual Quotient (SQ) and Attitudes of the person will influence the person's perception towards the stimulants. This process will lead to either the person perceive the stimulants as stressors or not. If the person perceive it as stressors then it will stimulate the cognitive and the pyschomotor component for further process. In short the affective components act as stress receptors that are influenced by the person's beliefs, motives, intentions and attitudes.

Cognitive component involve in apprasing the stressors. At this level the thought will appraise and analyse the stressors either as challenges or as threats. If the person appraises the stressors as challenges then the stress caused by the stressors will promote the person's performance. However, if the person appraises the stressors as threats then stress caused by the stressors will inhibit the person's performance. Stress that promote the person's performance is called as favourable stress or good stress. Stress that inhibit the person's performance is called as unfavourable stress or bad stress. Stress level of a person will be influenced by the process.

Psychomotor component involve in carry out responses (actions) toward the stressors. The ways of actions are carried out are known as coping strategies. The coping strategies are influenced by the stressors and the appraisal process at cognitive level. Direct influence of stressors will cause fight or flight phenomenon. Continual interactions between the appraisal and the actions toward the stressors will lead to the adjustment of the person's coping strategies. Coping strategies that reduce the person's stress level is known as positive coping strategies. Coping strategies that increase the person's stress level is known as negative coping strategies.

In conclusion, the stress level are influenced by the EQ, SQ, attitudes, how the person appraise the stressors, and the ways of a person responses toward the stressors. Thus it is important for everyone to recognize their stressors and the ways they cope with the stress. By doing this they will be able to find ways that work well in reducing their own stress.

Comprehensive Stress Management

2008-08-16T15:14:00.006+08:00

By Dr Peter Lind

A comprehensive approach to stress management is to make sure you deal with each part of stress. There are three major stresses that need your complete attention: physical, nutritional, and emotional. To be complete, each of these causes of stress need to be studied and dealt with.

Physical stress is tearing you down

To reduce stress physically you have to do the most effective exercise with the least risk of symptom, injury, and death. Exercise must improve your strength, your cardiovascular system, your body fat, and bone strength. It must improve your muscle mass and its tone.

Physically, you must:

1. Know the difference between aerobic, anaerobic exercises and fit these both into your exercise program.

2. Know how is health lifestyle and exercise related and take the steps to improve your health through exercising.

3. Know what is the definition of aerobic exercise and do some easy aerobics today even if it means walking around the block.

4. Understand what makes anaerobic exercising so important and how to begin this type of exercise.

5. Know the types of aerobic exercise and work aerobics into your exercise without stressing more of your system.

Nutritional stress is eating you up

Think about what you eat. Why are you causing even more stress? Nutrition is the soil for your health. If you are ill all the time your body is not repairing itself from the ground up. To heal you need the right diet. You need the right source of minerals, vitamins and enzymes that are optimal for your body to heal and repair.

Nutritionally, to receive the best benefit you must:

1. Know what is the definition of nutrition, let's start there.

2. Know what makes up good nutrition.

3. Know why is nutrition important when exercise.

4. Know how bad fast foods really are.

5. Know the reason why the food pyramid changed.

6. Understand how the basic food groups are put together.

7. Know the effects of cooking methods on food.

Repressing emotional stress will just come up as stress

All illness, disease, and malady has an emotional component. Every health problem reoccur over and over until the hidden emotional components are found and corrected.

Emotional control is paramount for reducing stress and one of the most important aspects for helping the body maintain homeostasis.

To enjoy a healthy balance of emotions, you must:

1. Know how stress affects health.

2. Know how stress affects lifestyle.

3. Know how stress produces physical symptoms.

4. Know what do with negative emotions.

To address each of these issues will take dilegence and time but what else do you have? As you begin now you can really change your life. Tell someone what you have learned.

You can do this research on your own or you can get help with this information on my website. However you do this make sure you do. It will help you now and it will prolong your long, healthy life.

For more stress information go to Manage Stress

Permission is granted to reprint the article, free of charge, providing that the article remains unchanged.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr_Peter_Lind

Deal with Medical School Stress Without Going Crazy

2008-08-16T14:54:00.003+08:00

By Amber C. Smith

Medical school is probably the hardest, most time consuming schooling around. You spend eight or more years of your life simply trying to survive medical school and your internship. Though medical school is extremely difficult, you can handle the stress if you do it the right way.

Work Ahead
First of all, work ahead. If you have an assignment due soon, start on it really early. In medical school, it's easy to get too busy and not get everything finished. Instead of procrastinating, work ahead on your assignments and readings so that if you have an emergency, you won't get behind.

Ask For Help
In medical school, the idea of asking for help isn't common, but it is important. Most professors are more than willing to help students who are having problems in their class. Just be sure to ask sooner rather than later or you may be at a point where you can't improve your grades quickly enough to stay in medical school.

Get Some Sleep
Medical school is an extremely exhausting time in your life, particularly once you start your internship. The best thing you can do for yourself is get some sleep as often as possible. Even if you do have to turn down working in a cool surgery, always go home and rest once you get tired.

Study with Friends
Studying becomes your life in medical school, but it doesn't have to be working. Create study groups with your friends as this will combine studying with some fun, so you don't become burned out as quickly. Maybe you should go out to dinner or meet in the library with snacks and books so that you can study while having fun and food.

Take a Break
Medical students always seem to feel that they need to study constantly, but if you want to stay sane, you need to take a break sometimes. Whether you go running, play Frisbee, or just take a long bubble bath, you will definitely feel rejuvenated and more motivated once you've taken a short break.

What to Remember

When you're stressed out in medical school, particularly during your internship, remember these things:

1. Work ahead.

2. You can ask for help.

3. Get some sleep.

4. Study with friends.

5. Take a break.

Take a look at more industry related articles by Amber Smith at CareersandEducation.com . Amber Smith is a frequent contributor with articles pertaining to using Distance Learning and Career Advice.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amber_C._Smith

Reality of Medical Training

2008-07-30T12:09:00.013+08:00

Let us ask some questions to ourselves, what is the reality of Medical Education? Do we realise about this? Do we know what is the purpose of Medical Education? The purpose of Medical Education is to produce academically competent, skillful and professional doctors to serve the people. The medical school curriculum has been designed to achieve and accomplish these visions. However, some aspects of training may cause unwanted negative impacts on medical students' physical, emotional and mental health that can inhibit these ambitions and values. Studies have revealed that medical students well-being deteriorate after students begin medical training and remains poor throughout the training. At individual level, the distress can contribute to poor academic achievement and personal developments. At professional level, as medical pratitioners, studies have shown that distress students can lead to cynicism and subsequently may affects students' relationships with faculty, patients' care, feeling inadequate and unsatisfied with their career, and ultimately the culture of the medical profession. These are the reality of medical training that we should know and face. Perhaps, we as medical teachers need to think and come out with realistic solutions to reduce complications of medical training on medical students well-being. With that, we leave this topic open to be discussed further.

Knowing our learning styles for effective learning.

2008-07-30T11:29:00.025+08:00

What is learning styles? How to identify our learning styles? Why we are so bothered about it? How can its help in improving our learning effectiveness? These are questions commonly asked once we are discussing about learning styles.

Everyone have diferrent learning styles. Learning styles are classified into various ways, but most established and widely used learning styles classification are VARK and Kolb's learning styles. In this article we are going to explore Kolb's Learning Styes. Kolb's (1984) postulated that there are four learning styles exist that combine to form two learning dimensions which are perception continuum and process continuum. It is theorised that everybody use each of the learning style to some extent but has a preffered learning style resulting tendency to learn either through concrete experience (feeling), through abstract conceptualisation (thinking), through reflective observation (watching) or through active experimentation (doing). James Zull (2002) stated that "The art of changging the brain is by enriching learning by exploring the nature of learning". On top of that, Darwin stated that "It is not the strongest of species that survive, not the most intelingence, but the most responsive to the change." Thus, by knowing and understanding our learning style nature we can response and adapt to changes better which can help in enhancing our learning effectivenes.

How to recognise our own learning style preference? In general, according to Kolb, there are four categories of learning style which are called as Diverging, Assimilating, Converging and Accomodating. Each category have their own characteristics and by knowing it we can identify our own learning style in term of the most preferred and the least preffered. Diverging is combination of feeling and watching. Assimilating is combination of watching and thinking. Converging is combination of thinking and doing. Accomodating is combination of doing and feeling.

Individual with diverging learning style see things is various aspects, they have a lot of ideas and sensitive to feeling. they like brainstorming session and gathering information. Usually When they learning they preferred groups discussion in order them to gather information, they like personal feedback and listening with open minded. Individual with assimilating learning style like the ideas and concept rather than practical application, they have ability to understand a broad range of information and they will put it in concise, systematic and logical form, and they tend to use evaluate things based on ideas and theories rather than practical application. When learn, they like lecture, reading, exploring theories and take some times to think through before acting. Individual with converging learning style like to find out the practical uses of teories and concepts, they have ability to solve problems and to make decision towards questions or problems based on finding solutions. When learn, they like to experiment ideas and concept, simulation, laboratory works and practical applications. Individual with accomodating learning style tend to learn primarily based on the experiences during practical session, they do what they was planned, like to try out ideas which are new and challenging, they tend to make their decision based on their feeling rather than logical thinking and they heavily depending on other to find information. When learn, they like working in group to complete assignments, they like field-work, and they like to try out new approaches t0 complete tasks or projects. These are the characteristics of the learning styles. Now reflect on ourselves and gauge where we are. Which is the most fits and describes us? Which is the least fits and describes us? Answer the questions and you will find out your learning nature.

It is hoped that this brief introduction on learning styles can help us in improving our learning effectiveness and preparing us to be a responsive person to changes.

What are stressors for medical students?

2008-07-29T21:51:00.026+08:00

Everyone have encountered stressors in their daily life either they do realise or they don't realise about it. Stressors is defined as anything that can cause stress to persons either physically or psychologically. We should realise that stressors are different depending on persons' characteristics, surrounding environment, cultures and beliefs. If that so, then why we are so bothered about stressors? Does it really important to know our stressors? If we know our stressors, what can we do about it? These are some questions that come across in our mind.

Medical students are vulnerable to stress. We know that stress is caused by stressors. By knowing their stressors we can find ways to prevent and overcome it. What are stressors for medical students? Many studies have been conducted to look for medical students' stressors. Most of the studies reported that there are 10 most common stressors in medical students and most of them course-related. The top 5 most common stressors that were reported are time pressure, tests and examinations, getting behind in the work, heavy workload and unclear lectures. Other stressors are commonly cited such as financial problems, relationship problems, getting poor marks, family problems, and conflicting demands. Overall pattern of stressors is the same regardless of curriculum adopted by medical schools, eventhough frequency of some stressors might be significantly different.

Now, we know causes of stress among medical students, therefore what can we do about it? Most of stressors are related to course contents, therefore it is unrealistic and impossible to reduce the contents to overcome this problem because to be a competent doctor those contents are essential and crucial. Therefore, solution for this is medical schools and teachers must teach their students how to manage and cope with stress. Perhaps, during first year orientation program, medical school can arrange so called stress-reduction program such as mini workshops on stress management, coping skills and appropriate learning approaches for effective learning in medical course. By doing this at least medical students aware and alert about possible stressors they will face in the future. Therefore, they will proactivley find ways and strategies to prevent and overcome possible stressors that they will face later on. If such measures can be materialised by medical schools, perhaps it can help in reducing students' stress and indirectly can improve medical students well-being. As a result, medical schools can produce healthy and competent doctors.

What are negative effects of stress on Medical Students?

2008-07-29T10:57:00.025+08:00

Studies have shown that the prevalence of stress among medical students is high and in facts, it is higher than normal population prevalence. Eventhough optimal stress can enhance medical students' performance and abilities but over stress can cause a lot of mental and physical health problems. Studies have revealed that over stress can reduce medical students' self-esteem and self-confident, impinge decision making, difficulties in handling conflicts, cynicism, increase anxiety and depression, reduce attention and concentration, having sleeping problems, increase alcohol and drugs consumptions (substances abuse) and to a certain extend they commit suicide. All of these negative effects inhibit medical students' achievement and personal attributes development. As a result, medical students feeling inadequate and unsatisfied with their career as a medical pratitioner in the future. Therefore, early detection and diagnosis of stress in medical students can help in preventing future possible illnesses related to stress.

Do Medical Students Pyschologically Distress?

2008-07-27T00:47:00.016+08:00

Medical Education is the most stressful course compare to other courses. Many studies have shown that medical students are at high risk of developing psychological distress. Prevalence of psychological distress among medical students are ranged from 30% to 50%. About 15 % to 25% of them developed depression symptoms and around 5% of them need treatment. The prevalence of distress in medical students is higher than normal population. Distress can cause a lof of negative impacts to medical students. Studies have revealed that medical students in distress are academically underachievement, socially incompetent and a few of them commit suicide. Therefore, medical students distress is not a merely simple issue that can be ingored and neglected without proper attention, medical institutions need to address this issue appropriately and perhaps interventions can be planned to help in preventing and reducing adverse effects of psychological distress to medical students.