Grounded Analysis of Graduate Students' Parallel Thesis Writing and Stressor Identification from the Perspective of Narrative Medicine.

Abstract

Objective To address the insufficient educational-context explanation in postgraduate stress research and the limitation of standardized scales in capturing process-based difficulties in research training,this study constructs "parallel thesis" as a narrative tool for postgraduate education based on the text-generating logic of "parallel chart" in narrative medicine,and examines its value in identifying stressors among medical postgraduates. Methods Seventeen postgraduates from Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine completed parallel thesis writing after a narrative workshop.Their texts were analyzed through constructivist grounded theory,including open,axial,and selective coding,followed by theoretical saturation testing. Results Twelve initial categories and five main categories were identified and further integrated into three core stressors:institutional,executive,and endogenous pressures.Institutional pressure involved graduation requirements,evaluation mechanisms,and career competition;executive pressure concerned research progress,supervisor interaction,and insufficient support;endogenous pressure involved goal ambiguity,self-doubt,and identity crisis. Conclusions Parallel thesis is not a simple conceptual transplantation from parallel chart,but a reconstructed narrative tool that transforms experience-oriented narrative medicine into data generation,stress identification,and support feedback in postgraduate education.It may supplement scale-based assessment and provide a replicable route for medical education reform and postgraduate support system building.