Stressors and Stress of Veterinary Students during their Introduction to the Clinical Workplace

Abstract

Various stressors contribute to veterinary students’ stress levels. According to the medical education literature, students’ stress seems to increase during clinical training, but research investigating this in veterinary students is scarce. According to transactional stress theory, individual students may not perceive every stressor as equally stressful. The present research therefore aimed to investigate how stressful veterinary students perceive stressors of clinical training, identify subgroups based on their perceptions of these stressors, and determine whether the subgroups differ regarding their total clinical training-related stress and academic achievement. The sample consisted of 197 veterinary students completing their clinical rotation course. The Rotation Stress Questionnaire for Veterinary Students (RSQV) was employed to assess rotation-specific stressors and stress. Course grades served as indicators of academic achievement. Veterinary students reported moderate overall clinical training-related stress, and heavy workload was the main source of stress. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified four subgroups of students, namely: the Generally Stressed Group, Responsibilities Uncertainty Group, Overtasked Group, and Unstressed Group, with significant differences in total stress ( p < .001). The groups also differed significantly in academic achievement ( p = .015), with post-hoc analysis indicating significant mean differences between the highest- and lowest-stress groups ( p = .014). In conclusion, veterinary students’ stress during clinical training appears to be a significant factor, particularly concerning workload. However, there are interindividual differences in total stress and achievement which should be considered.