A Guide To Stress Management In Medical School

Your Rx for Conquering Stress in the Medical School Hustle

Stress is universal, and everyone feels some form of stress in one form or the other.

In this article, I would share with you on some interesting things about stress.

Firstly, we'll talk about stress and how it pertains to you as a medical student, and then we'll wrap up by talking about how to manage stress effectively as a medical student.

Can't wait to dive in? Let's get to it!

I'll start with a typical College day schedule.

You had a 2-hour Physiology class from 8am - 10am. Your next 2-hour class is anatomy, and it comes up immediately after Physiology and ends by 12pm.

New lecture materials have now been released for the day's lectures and you've got to print them out to study them.

You have an appointment with your class representative to submit a document physically at the departmental Secretariat

You're also trying to catch up to a deadline to fill up your Biochemistry practical manual and submit in two days time.

And to finish off for the day, you've got Anatomy lab practicals from 2pm - 4pm before heading home which would normally take at least 20 minutes.

Phew! Pretty hectic day right?

And in all of these, we haven't even considered your basic activities of daily living. Activities like eating, drinking, relaxing or some other thing else that matters to you.

Now there's a very big question to ask, and it's simple.

Exactly how do you manage all of these activities properly without breaking down?

There's no two ways about it. If you're going to do very well in medical school, you've got to develop coping mechanisms to help you manage stress effectively.

Stress Management in Medical School

In my article on The Volume-Time Challenge Of Medical School, I gave a detailed explanation on the real challenge for you as a medical student.

You should go through that article if you haven't already done so before.

But if I'm going to be very candid with you, I'll say it might not be possible to be 100% perfect in stress management.

One thing I can guarantee you however, is a well developed coping mechanism and response to medical school stress.

Proper planning

There's a popular saying about the 5Ps. Proper preparation prevents poor performance.

I'll tell you the significance of this statement in relation to stress management.

According to Forbes, planners show more control over their emotions, less stress and more positive emotional, health and life outcomes.

One of the ways to significantly reduce the mental, emotional and physical stress of medical school is by making adequate plans.

In this article on How Planning Your Day Reduces Stress, Wellsource notes that planning your day could take about 5-10 minutes of your day, but could make your entire day much less stressful and productive.

A well planned day could include something as simple as a to-do list or a hourly time log.

Whichever method you choose, the role of proper planning in stress management cannot be overemphasized.

In my next article, I'll be sharing with you on how to plan your day properly to increase your productivity and reduce stress.

Kindly like and share this article if you found it helpful.

Thanks for reading!