In the third year, medical students begin patient care, but they are low on the totem pole. Acceptance of death and dying emerges as a key issue in coping with stress. For some medical students, the clinical years become routine and the fourth year is less stressful. Lack of personal time continues to stress residents in their second and third years. Solutions to help medical students and residents e with stress include improving orientation, better counseling, and more support groups.
Stress is necessary to challenge students to learn.
The key to reducing distress is providing students with a feeling of control over their education, information about what to expect, and feedback regarding what can be done to improve their performance. Students who do not feel helpless will adopt their own coping strategies. Reactive coping, that is, dealing with one's own thoughts and feelings, can be facilitated by accessible professional and peer counseling, student support groups, and adequate faculty advising. Active coping, that is, dealing with the actual stressful situations or events, can be strengthened by providing students with early success. Good teaching can not be overestimated as a key to preventing and minimizing distress among students.