More than a third of undergraduate medical doctoral students believe that their mental health has deteriorated since the start of their studies. So much so that, among externs, about one person in six has thought about suicide in the last year, reveals a very recent survey by the Fédération médicale étudiante du Québec (FMEQ) obtained by The duty.
“It seems that we are not managing to reduce this distress data among students,” points out Florence Morissette, medical student and FMEQ wellness delegate from July 2021 to July 2022. And this, despite the psychological resources put in place over the years.
More than 15% of undergraduate students — which includes preclinical and clerkship learning — admit to having had suicidal thoughts since the start of their studies, according to the survey conducted last April and May of 764 respondents from the four faculties of medicine in Quebec.
This proportion is almost doubled if we isolate the group of clerkship students (an intense period of two-year internships). Among these, one in four students would have thought about suicide since entering medicine – the same rate that had been reported by an FMEQ survey carried out in January and February 2020.
The mental health of Maxime Bell, who will begin his third year in medicine next fall, took a hit when he entered the program. The pandemic, combined with the transition from CEGEP to university studies and the stress of the first exams, contributed to this “more difficult pass”, says the student from the University of Sherbrooke, who is thinking of becoming a psychiatrist.
The mental health of young adults and adolescents in general has been greatly affected by the pandemic, raises Nicholas Chadi, pediatrician and clinician-researcher specializing in adolescent medicine and addiction. In this population, anxiety and depressive symptoms have been increasing quite steadily over the past 15 years in North America, he points out.
As far as medical students are concerned, they are part of the “big family of health professionals”, whose work environment and life have been shaken by COVID-19, notes the Dr.r Chadi.
The pandemic is “trying” for the health network and medical students, recognizes David Eidelman, president of the Conference of Deans of the Faculties of Medicine of Quebec. But “medical studies always pose great challenges, even in normal times”, he nuances. However, he believes that some of the survey results are “worrying”.
Exhausted from the workload
According to Florence Morissette, this distress “is mainly linked to the sources of stress of medical students”. Among the stressors cited by respondents, lack of time ranks first (64.8%), followed by workload (60.7%) and academic performance (60.3%).
Nearly 63% of future doctors say they feel exhausted by their workload at least once a week. Among them, more than 12% feel this weight on a daily basis.
During exams, the workload is so heavy that medical students can skip meals and sleep only five hours a night, says Maxime Bell. “We study late, we wake up early and we start again the next day,” says the 20-year-old student. The latter notes that these behaviors are “all the more ironic on the part of future health professionals”.
For Florence Morissette, the “nerve of war” in reducing the exhaustion and distress of future doctors would be the improvement of internship conditions. “I think the students have a lot on their shoulders with the long hours of internship, the fact of always being evaluated and always having to perform. »
On the other hand, faculties believe that students should be prepared for a heavy workload when they become doctors — “which is not totally wrong either,” she notes.